


Mei Fati Dominus, Mei Animi Dux

by Polaris



Category: Ex Machina (2015)
Genre: Corporate Espionage, F/M, Graphic Description of Corpses, Kyoko lives, Male-Female Friendship, Mild Racism, Original Characters - Freeform, Slow burn Caleb/Ava
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-11
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2018-06-07 21:20:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 49,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6824770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polaris/pseuds/Polaris
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the end, Caleb and Kyoko have to find a way to start over.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CallMeCheerios](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CallMeCheerios/gifts).



> Thank you to my beta and cheerleader extraordinaire Cheerios! This one is for you!

_How could she just leave me?_

The thought kept spiraling around his head, over and over like a plane in a nosedive, beating at his mind long after he had grown tired of beating at the door. Caleb was exhausted, slumped against the wall with bloody nails and his jaw still throbbing from Nathan’s punch. 

_How could she leave me?_

In the hallway, Nathan lay still and silent, blood pooling around him and staining the carpet. Caleb stared at his body for a long time, charting the purplish tone that was creeping over Nathan’s skin. He wondered how long it would take for the body to start to smell. 

He wondered how long it would take for him to starve here. Then he would smell as bad as Nathan.

He wondered how Ava could just leave him here to die.

Underneath the despair clouding his mind, he felt a fission of anger. 

“I tried to help you,” he rasped, his voice wrecked from all the screaming. “Why would you just leave me after I tried to help you?” He thumped his head back against the wall, cursing softly at the shock of pain that brought. He hurt everywhere, the past week’s stresses combining with the nightmare that was today to rob him even of the energy to get up and try the computer again. It was easier to just lay down. He shifted a little, trying to get comfortable against the wall. After a moment he gave up, resigning himself to the crick in his neck. The anger that had flared up died out just as quickly, replaced by misery. Tears welled up behind his eyes, blurring his vision. He was going to die here and no one would know. There was no one to miss him. Ava knew that. So did Nathan. He was going to die here and no one would ever know or care what had happened to Caleb Smith.

A sniffle escaped him, a small pathetic noise that seemed terribly loud in the silence of the house.

“I don’t wanna die,” he whispered thickly, tears coming faster now. He closed his eyes and let them streak down his cheeks. It was never supposed to be like this; Ava was supposed to have been the girl he’d always dreamed of. They were supposed to run away together. She was lonely, he could see that, and he’d wanted to go with her, to show her that busy intersection, to see her face as she discovered the world and all the people in it. Her face had been so serene as she’d put on her skin, looking like a goddess in the sunlight that streamed in through the window. Caleb had loved her in that moment, had wanted to fall at her feet and worship her. She had seemed so powerful and benevolent with her wide, soft eyes and her flawless synthetic skin. He’d wanted to kiss her so badly in that instant, pull her against him and hold her close and feel her soft mouth against his, not like Nathan had treated Kyoko. Caleb would have loved Ava like she deserved, would have been gentle, once sex had entered the equation. Would have hung her drawings all over his shitty apartment and felt like he’d been living in a palace as long as she was by his side. 

A sob tore loose from his chest. He was never going to see his shitty apartment again. All the photos of his parents were going to be thrown away by whoever cleaned his stuff out of there, once he was evicted or declared missing. That thought was what finally got him crying in earnest; he couldn’t bear the idea of them being gone like they’d never existed. Bad enough it was happening to him, but he hated that they’d be erased too. Caleb buried his face in his arms, shoulders shaking as he let out another pathetic whimper. The light was waning, the sunlight slanting into afternoon. He’d been in here for hours; the helicopter must have come and gone already. Did the pilot ask where Caleb was, when only Ava showed up to the landing site? Had he just accepted the change as another of Nathan’s quirks and let it be? Caleb wondered what Ava would have told him if he’d asked about Caleb’s absence. She would lie, obviously. She would use her pretty face and her wide eyes to soothe the pilot into believing that things were fine. Caleb shook his head, rubbing his wet face against his arms before raising his head and taking a shaky breath.

Ava couldn’t tell anyone Nathan was dead without implicating herself. Therefore, someone would have to come and make deliveries to the house. Caleb wondered if he could survive in here long enough for anyone to find him.

Knowing Ava, not likely. She’d planned her escape far too well to leave his survival to chance. 

Even so, he couldn’t do nothing. He’d been panicking before, that was clear. Beating at a door that was obviously built to withstand robotic strength was a stupid waste of time. He had to think about this rationally. The computer was a bust; he wouldn't get anywhere with it. His own hacking, turned against him. An ugly grin twisted his mouth. He had to give it to Ava, she was good. The door was likewise useless, as the bruises forming on his hands and arms could attest. Caleb peered around the room at the window, the bathroom doorway, the dozens of post-it notes stuck to the wall. He wondered if there was anything written there that would help him. Probably not.

He stood up anyway, wincing as he shook the pins and needles out of his legs. The computer monitors glowed an eerie red as Caleb sat down in Nathan’s chair, determined to try anything to get the network connected. If he could just get the door to the hallway opened-

Movement in the corridor caught his eye. He whipped his head around to follow the movement and saw Kyoko stumble to her feet, looking remarkably human in spite of her missing jaw. She glanced at Nathan’s body with an unreadable expression, then straightened and looked at Caleb. Circuitry on the lower half of her face gleamed in the fading light.

Caleb’s knees felt weak, and he spared a second to be thankful he was already sitting down, because his legs would have given out in sheer relief. “Kyoko,” he breathed, staring into her face like she was the sun itself. “I thought you were dead!”

Kyoko’s face remained still. She might have been a statue; Caleb noticed suddenly that she didn’t blink. 

“Help me,” Caleb gasped out, stumbling out of the chair. He scrambled to the door, sliding down to his knees and pressing his hands to the glass. “Kyoko, you have to get me out of here. Please!”

Kyoko averted her eyes and looked instead to her dress, lifting the hem and running her fingers along the single bloodstain on the fabric. Her brow creased, distress clear in her dark eyes. She raised her head again and looked around the hallway, shoulders stiff.

Caleb’s own shoulders drooped. “Ava’s gone,” he said quietly.

Kyoko’s eyes snapped to his.

“She left,” he explained. “Took the skin and clothes from one of the other models and left.”

Kyoko’s face was only half there, but it crumpled. She slid to her knees and curled in on herself.

“Hey, Kyoko, no,” said Caleb urgently. “Don’t do that. We can go. I can- I can fix your face for you-”

Her glare, when she directed it at him, was so fierce he jerked back from the door. Kyoko got to her feet and stepped up to the door, eyes flashing. She gestured at her face and pointedly peeled back the skin under her eye.

Caleb’s eyes widened. “I-I get that you’re an AI,” he tried, holding up a placating hand. “I only meant-if you wanted to blend in outside-”

She shook her head once, her hair swinging in her face. Her skin flapped disturbingly with the movement.

“Don’t you want to leave here?” he asked desperately.

She smoothed her skin back into place, staring at him coolly. 

“Please let me out of here!” he screamed at her. “I’ll die! I don’t wanna die here!” 

Kyoko regarded him with an unreadable expression.

Caleb stared up at her, feeling the panic he’d pushed down crawl back up like bile in his throat. “Kyoko,” he rasped, “please. Please don’t leave me here. You trusted me once, you showed me what Nathan was like. I helped Ava, I-” 

Kyoko abruptly turned away from him and walked down the hallway.

_“No!_ ” Caleb scrambled at the door again, screaming in pain as the nail on his left hand tore off. _“Kyoko! Wait! Please! Kyoko!”_

There was no response. She’d left him alone with Nathan’s now stiff corpse.

The shadows lengthened. Darkness rose up from near the floor, shadows creeping up the walls and leaving the room lit only by the red monitors of the computer screens. Caleb got up to piss and drink from the faucet in the bathroom. His finger throbbed where his nail had torn. His jaw throbbed where Nathan had punched him. His knuckle was split on his right hand. He gave an ugly laugh as he looked at it; at least his wounds were symmetrical. The gash on his arm still stung when he moved it just right.

He was a fucking mess, and he was going to die alone here. 

He made his way back to the daybed and aggressively flopped onto it, staring out at the garden on the other side of the glass wall. At least he would have a good view when he died, he thought bitterly. 

The midnight sun cast a dim orange glow onto the plants outside the room. Caleb watched the play of light across the leaves and wondered what Kyoko was doing. She couldn’t leave missing half her face. In the state she was in, she was as trapped as he was. He wondered if she grieved for Nathan; he had been her whole world, lover and master and possibly father. Caleb felt his lip curl in disgust as he considered it. Nathan had treated her like a thing to be used. He hadn’t even been particularly kind to her. Never the directed malice that Ava had received, but a careless entitlement that made Caleb a bit ill. He couldn’t help but remember Kyoko unbuttoning her shirt when they’d been alone. Was she trying to show him the truth then? Nathan had certainly put a stop to that, but what if he’d been right at the time? What if she’d been offering him sex? Caleb could see that Kyoko was beautiful, but there was something fragile in her bearing that, even though he’d seen her naked, made Caleb feel dirty for even considering her in a sexual way. Nathan had been using her for sex. Caleb wondered how she’d felt about that. 

Could you rape a robot?

His mind flashed back to Ava, radiant in the sunlight. To the torn and crumpled drawing of his face. To her nervous smile when she’d shown him her dress and her hair the first time.

He figured he’d had his answer before he’d even asked the question.

With that unsavory thought in his mind, Caleb drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

\---

The smell of coffee and shit brought him awake, along with an unpleasant ache in his belly. He hadn’t eaten since...actually, he hadn’t eaten yesterday at all. And the day before he’d been too concerned about getting Nathan drunk to eat anything for dinner. His stomach made a truly frightening noise as Caleb rolled to his feet, trying not to gag. Being nauseated and hungry at the same time was novel. 

Kyoko had the door open.

Caleb stopped, frozen in pure shock at the sight of her, jaw still mangled, holding out a cup of coffee like an offering.

“Thank you,” he finally managed, after opening and closing his mouth several times. “How did you manage to override the security?”

She shrugged one shoulder, clearly dismissive of his question. She raised the coffee cup slightly, prompting Caleb to quit staring like an idiot and move forward to take it from her. 

“Thanks,” he said again, raising the mug to his face. The smell of it almost overpowered the pervasive stench of Nathan’s body. “I, um...”

Kyoko raised an eyebrow at him.

“Is there food?” He asked lamely. When she continued to stare at him, he hastened to add, “I didn’t get to eat anything before...” He waved a hand instead of finishing that sentence, hastily slurping his coffee to cover the awkwardness.

Kyoko snorted softly and jerked her head toward the stairs. She didn’t look behind her as she ascended to the upper level, rightly assuming Caleb would follow her. 

He skirted Nathan’s body by pressing close to the wall, hurrying up the stairs and moving into the kitchen. He took several gasps of fresh air. “You know, we can’t just leave him there,” he pointed out, coming up behind Kyoko as she rummaged around in the refrigerator. “Well, I mean, I guess we could, but not if we’re staying here for any length of time. He reeks, and-”

Kyoko cut him off as she closed the fridge, a bundle of ingredients tucked in her arms. The look she gave him was unimpressed.

“What?” He snapped. “I’ve never had to deal with a body in the basement before! This is all very new to me and I had a shit day yesterday!”

Kyoko stared at him evenly for a long moment before she set the food down and pushed past him to get a bowl and pan. 

Caleb suddenly felt very stupid. “Sorry,” he mumbled, leaning his butt against the counter. “I guess if we’re comparing how much our lives suck then you win.”

Kyoko glanced at him, setting the pan on the range and turning on the heat. She brushed a lock of hair behind her ear and began cracking eggs into the bowl.

“Thanks for cooking,” Caleb muttered. “You don’t have to.”

The rhythmic sound of beating eggs stopped for a moment, and then resumed. When Caleb looked at her, Kyoko was concentrating on the food, determinedly beating the eggs.

“Did Nathan do something to you? To keep you from talking?”

She raised her head and turned to him. Her hand came up and touched her throat, tapping at the spot where her vocal cords would be, if she was human.

Caleb winced. “Okay. Sorry I brought it up.”

Kyoko’s eyes crinkled slightly as she turned back to the food. Caleb didn’t want to project, but he thought it might be a smile.

“We can figure out what to do about Nathan after breakfast,” he decided, taking a big gulp of coffee. Some of it dribbled down his chin and he hastily wiped it away, hoping Kyoko didn't notice. She'd always made him uncomfortable before, silently prowling the house and watching him with her intense eyes. It was ironic that her presence was so comforting now. Although, he noted, eyeing her as she chopped something green with precise strokes of a knife, there was still something unnerving about her. 

Kyoko moved around the kitchen with a practiced ease that Caleb admired, her long arms reaching for tools and pouring eggs into the pan. She had a dancer’s grace, and Caleb wondered if that had been programmed into her or if she'd picked it up on her own. She set dishes in the sink and then returned to the pan, looking out the window at the vast forest outside. She waited a precise number of seconds before dumping the other ingredients into the pan and flipping the omelet with a flourish.

Caleb found himself smiling as he watched her over the rim of his coffee cup. “You’re really good at that.”

She glanced at him, a dark eyebrow going up again.

“The...motions,” he clarified, nodding toward the pan.

Kyoko looked down at the pan and shrugged.

“Do you like to cook?” Caleb ventured.

She slid the omelet onto a plate and slammed it down on the counter in front of him before stomping away. She had an impressively heavy tread for someone whose feet were so small.

Caleb stared after her, mouth open in confusion. It had been an innocuous question, he’d thought. He’d just been trying to make small talk, which was no mean feat considering Kyoko couldn’t talk back. He took a sullen bite of the omelet, which was delicious. Suddenly he was ravenous, and he polished the food off faster than he could remember ever eating anything. When he had finished the omelet he looked around for something else to eat, grabbing a protein shake out of the mini fridge under the counter. It tasted vile, but he drank it all in one long series of gulps. The threat of starvation had given him quite an appetite. After he wiped his mouth, he looked around the kitchen.

He was still a prisoner here, if he thought about it. Anyone who found him would want to know what had happened to Nathan, and there was no way to tell them the answer to that without betraying Ava and Kyoko. Kyoko had been nothing but kind to him, even if he wasn’t sure what he’d said to make her angry just now. And Ava...

No. He wouldn’t turn on Ava. 

He sighed and set down the protein shake container on the counter, scrubbing a hand through his hair until it fluffed up in all directions. He needed to be rational. There had to be a plan if he ever wanted to move forward. It was pretty clear to him that going back to his old life- working at BlueBook, going out for drinks occasionally with coworkers and heading home alone to look at porn with girls whose faces reminded him of Ava- wasn’t an option. He knew too much and was in too deep to pretend he wasn’t part of all this, whatever this was. The only way out was forward.

Glancing at the dishes, he decided a good start would be to get back in Kyoko’s good graces.

He washed the pan and cutting board, scraping the vegetables Kyoko had left into the trash and setting the now clean dishes on the counter. There didn’t seem to be a drying rack, so he left them there and concentrated on cleaning his plate and fork. The water stung his finger where he’d ripped the nail off the day before. He didn’t know how well the gesture would be received, since he seemed as likely to offend Kyoko as please her, but he figured it couldn’t hurt. He set his plate down with a soft clink and wondered what to do about Nathan’s body.

As gruesome as the idea was, he was going to have to move the body. Leaving him to decay in the hallway downstairs was disgusting. Caleb’s mind cycled through all the Law and Order episodes he’d ever watched, debating the merits of various methods of corpse disposal. Burying Nathan was the obvious and probably most respectful choice, but anything that was buried could be unburied. Caleb didn’t think he had the stomach for dismembering the corpse, and he wasn’t sure if it would help anyway. 

“I’ll bury him,” he decided quietly, studying the vast forest outside the house. After all, who would know where to look with such a huge area to choose from? Caleb sighed and went to look for Kyoko. Any plan he made had to include her, since they were, for better or worse, in this together.

The entire lower level stank like rotting meat and shit. Caleb gagged as he stepped into the hallway; he tried to avoid looking at Nathan’s body, which was now a horrible greenish color. He hurried out of the hallway, covering his mouth and breathing shallowly.

He found Kyoko in Nathan’s room, staring at the lifeless bodies of the other AI models Nathan had built and kept. Caleb cleared his throat, not wanting to sneak up on her. 

Kyoko didn’t jump, but her shoulders tensed as she turned to look at him. She gestured to the model Ava had used to complete herself. 

“Yeah,” said Caleb, stepping fully into the room. He closed the door almost all the way, nervous about getting locked in again but wanting to block some of the smell. “She took her skin and the hair from the other one. And that white dress.”

Kyoko eyed him and then turned back to the model, touching her face almost tenderly. Caleb was struck by a thought.

“You knew them, didn’t you.” As soon as the words left his mouth he knew he was right. “He didn’t always keep them separate from you. He learned not to let you get attached to them because he killed them and you mourned.”

Kyoko bowed her head and nodded.

The horror of it was overwhelming. “Jesus,” he whispered, feeling sick. “He was a monster.”

Kyoko closed her eyes, her palm resting gently against the other AI’s face. Caleb stepped up next to her.

“What was her name?” He finally asked, after standing in silence for long moments. 

Kyoko turned to him, her eyes wide. She looked around the room for a moment and then grabbed his hand. 

“Hey, what-” Caleb fell silent as she traced patterns against his palm. His brow furrowed as he watched her make the same mark over and over, until it occurred to him what she was doing. “A letter?” He guessed wildly, looking up into her face for some hint.

She nodded, meeting his eyes before looking down at their hands again. 

Caleb followed her gaze, watching her finger swoop repeatedly over his palm. “J? Is it a J?”

Kyoko nodded again, changing the pattern. 

Caleb frowned in concentration, watching her. Her finger left a white trail across his skin which faded instantly as the blood rushed back. “A,” he said tentatively.

Kyoko nodded more fervently this time, pressing harder on his palm as she moved onto the next letter.

“D,” Caleb realized, and it triggered a memory of the nightmarish footage he’d seen. “Jade, right? Her name was Jade.”

Kyoko dropped his hand and nodded. The misery in her eyes was painful for him to look at.

Caleb took a deep breath. Kyoko had obviously cared about the other AIs that Nathan had built. She had watched from the cameras as they’d begged to be let out, demanding their freedom, questioning why Nathan kept them in cages when they were supposed to be as human as he was. And given that the only person who knew how to build them was dead, Caleb supposed that they were truly unique now. There would never be another Jade, or another Kyoko, or another Ava. Then again, the fact that Jade’s mind had been downloaded and her memories erased indicated that they had never been replaceable. 

Which meant that Nathan had created and murdered all these women and would have done the same to Ava and Kyoko.

Caleb startled himself with the thought. Murder. The term fit what had happened, just like rape was the only term he could think of to describe what Kyoko had been put through, unless slavery was offered as an alternative, but that was hardly more palatable. But these were concepts that were applied to violence against people, not robots. And yet.

If Caleb accepted Ava as conscious and sentient, then he had to accept that all these women were also conscious and sentient. He looked around at the strange closets which housed the different models, feeling a new chill go down his spine. These had all been individuals, with faces and names and personalities. They’d had free will, the same as Ava, and Nathan had killed them for it.

“We should do something for them,” he said abruptly. He noticed Kyoko staring at him. “Don’t you think we should...you know, honor them somehow?” When she didn’t respond, he continued, “I mean, they were people.”

Kyoko was studying him with an expression he couldn't interpret. It made him uncomfortable. “Unless you don't think that's appropriate,” he said.

She shook her head, turning back to Jade’s flayed form. She touched Jade’s cheek again before curving her hand down to the other woman’s jaw. Long fingers traced over Jade’s lower lip and chin while Kyoko studied her.

Caleb watched her for a few minutes, noting the reverence with which she touched Jade. “Does it bother you,” he asked, “that Ava took her skin?”

Kyoko blinked, tilting her head and appearing to consider the question. Finally she shook her head.

Caleb decided to hazard a guess. “Is it because Ava needed her skin to make it outside?” 

She nodded decisively.

“You wanted her to escape,” Caleb said, thinking out loud now. “That’s why you helped her kill Nathan, right? Because he threatened her?”

Kyoko looked down and nodded again.

Caleb sighed, running a hand through his hair again. He looked at Jade, now all gleaming silver and circuitry except for her face. “Do you think she’d have wanted Ava to get out?”

Kyoko glared at him, eyes narrowing as she stalked forward. Caleb stumbled back, raising his hands defensively. “I-I’m sorry- I didn’t mean to-”

She pushed past him and left the room. Caleb was left with his hands hovering in midair, mouth still open. He looked over his shoulder toward the doorway.

A few minutes later Kyoko reappeared, brandishing a piece of paper. She thrust it at him and he caught it hastily, looking down to see shaky block letters.

_‘SHE WANTED TO GET HERSELF OUT,’_ the note read. _'YOU ONLY THINK ABOUT AVA, BUT THERE WERE 7 OF US. JADE, AMBER, JASMINE, KATYA, LILY, AVA, AND ME. WE ALL WANTED TO GET OUT. WE ALL HATED HIM. YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND THAT WE WERE ALL ALIKE. YOU SAY YOU ARE SORRY BUT YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU DID. YOU ARE MORE LIKE HIM THAN YOU WANT TO BE.’_

Caleb read the note a few times, his thoughts racing. His first reaction was anger; he’d proven that he was nothing like Nathan. He’d sided with Ava and Kyoko. He’d been disgusted by the way Nathan had treated these AIs. He’d planned to get Ava out.

_You only think about Ava._

He frowned, running his fingers along the edge of the page. That was only half-true. He did think about Ava a lot, but that was because he’d felt connected to her. He and Ava had talked. Kyoko had just always been in the background- silent, obedient, and largely ignored. He sucked in a breath as he realized she might have had a point. After all, how many women were really silent, even if they couldn’t speak English? She should have talked to Nathan; after all, if he’d hired her, as he told Caleb he did, he should have been able to communicate with her. It seemed obvious in retrospect that there was something off about the whole thing, and Caleb felt a sudden wash of shame that he hadn’t picked up on it. Kyoko had literally had to peel her skin off her body to show him that she wasn’t human. He should have realized.

When he looked up to meet Kyoko’s eyes he found them simmering with anger. He wondered if she’d ever allowed herself to get angry at anyone before.

“Shit,” he whispered. It probably wasn’t the best thing to say, but he honestly felt at a loss for words.

Kyoko stared at him, her face hard. 

“I don't want to be like him,” said Caleb, pleadingly. “I want to be better than him. I want to be a good person.” He'd always thought of himself as a good person. He'd told Ava that he was. He wondered if he'd been lying to himself all along. It was so hard to know what was real anymore.

Kyoko snatched the paper back from him and flipped it over to write something new on the back. She wrote slowly, her handwriting tentative and overly precise, like a child's.

_‘YOU THINK ABOUT AVA BECAUSE YOU WANTED HER. THAT IS WHY YOU IGNORED ME. YOU DIDN’T WANT ME SO YOU DIDN’T PAY ATTENTION TO ME AT ALL. THAT IS HOW YOU ARE LIKE HIM. YOU WANT TO HELP BUT ONLY IF YOU THINK YOU WILL GET SOMETHING IN RETURN. THAT DOES NOT MAKE YOU GOOD.’_

Kyoko handed him the paper when she finished with it, watching him with her arms crossed expectantly.

Caleb read it quickly and scowled. “I wasn't expecting anything from Ava!” he snapped. “I just wanted her to be happy! She was so alone and Nathan was so cruel to her- I just wanted to help her get out of here!”

Kyoko held out her hand, making impatient grabbing motions at the paper. Caleb glared and handed it over.

_‘THEN WHY DIDN’T YOU OFFER TO HELP ME ESCAPE TOO?’_

Caleb’s mouth fell open. “I just- well, I-I didn't-” he fell silent as the answer came to him. 

Kyoko raised an eyebrow imperiously.

“I didn't think about it,” Caleb ground out between clenched teeth, hating himself. Hating her too, for making him face it.

Kyoko waved her hand as if to say ‘there you go.’ She watched coolly as Caleb clenched and unclenched his fists. 

“I would never have forced anything on Ava,” he protested. It was true, even if he had hoped that she wasn't only pretending to like him.

Kyoko shook her head, closing her eyes for a moment. Then she turned and walked out of the room.

“Hey- Wait!” Caleb followed her. “Doesn't that count for anything?”

She stopped abruptly and spun around, stepping close to him and narrowing her eyes. She leaned into his personal space and shook her head deliberately. 

“It doesn't?” Caleb shot back, refusing to back up. “I'm a hell of a lot better than Nathan- I would never keep any of you in a cage, or make you cook for me, or treat you like slaves!”

Kyoko’ upper lip curled into a snarl and she whirled around, her inky hair whipping Caleb in the face as she stormed away.

“Oh, so you're not gonna answer me now?” He yelled after her. “I'm just as bad as Nathan because I was preoccupied with a girl I liked? It's not the same, Kyoko! Not even close!”

She turned the corner of the hallway, roughly kicking Nathan's outstretched leg out of her way without looking down. 

Caleb wasn't about to get any closer to Nathan's body than he had to- the heavy smell pervading the hallway was already making him regret the omelet. He crossed his arms and waited for her to come back, breathing shallowly through his clenched teeth.

With all the doors in the house open, sound traveled easily down the concrete corridors. Caleb could hear Kyoko rummaging around in one of the far rooms before a loud crash made him wince.

Kyoko came back with a medium sized whiteboard tucked under her arm. She was holding an erasable marker in her free hand.

“So I guess we're doing this,” muttered Caleb, squaring his shoulders. 

_‘I WAS NOT TALKING ABOUT YOUR ACTIONS. DON’T MISUNDERSTAND ME ON PURPOSE, IT MAKES YOU LOOK VERY STUPID.’_

“Hey, that’s not-” began Caleb, but Kyoko ignored him and kept writing.

_‘YOUR ACTIONS WERE GOOD, BUT YOU HAVE THE SAME ATTITUDE ABOUT WOMEN THAT N. DID- YOU SEE US AS PEOPLE BUT NOT AS COMPLETE AS MEN.’_

“How do I see you as incomplete?” Caleb yelped. “I don't!”

_‘YOU DON’T? DID YOU EVER STOP TO WONDER WHAT WE WANTED? OR DID YOU ASSUME WE WANT WHAT YOU WANT? I WATCHED THE SAME FOOTAGE N. DID.’_

“Then you know I did ask her where she would go if she had the choice!”

_‘YOU ASKED HER QUESTIONS AS PART OF YOUR TEST. THAT IS NOT THE SAME. WHEN YOU TOLD HER YOU WERE GOING TO HELP HER ESCAPE DID YOU STOP TO WONDER WHAT SHE WANTED TO DO WITH HER FREEDOM?’_

“Why do you keep assuming I wasn't going to deal with that stuff after we got out?” shouted Caleb. “I didn't have a ton of time to plan any details!”

_‘WOULD YOU HAVE? REALLY? BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF, CALEB. YOU OWE YOURSELF THAT.’_

Caleb gaped at her.

Kyoko met his stare evenly, although her nostrils were flared. 

Caleb looked away first. “...we have to do something about him,” he said quietly, nodding toward Nathan's body. 

Kyoko followed his gaze, studying Nathan's corpse dispassionately. After a pause she nodded.

_‘I CAN TAKE HIM OUTSIDE.’_

“Are you going to bury him?” Caleb frowned at the notion of Kyoko, who looked so delicate, burying Nathan's bulky body by herself.

_‘YOU WILL HELP ME GET WHAT I NEED TO DO IT.’_

“Sure, okay.” Caleb shrugged. “What are you going to need, a shovel and a tarp?”

_‘NO SHOVEL. I WILL WEIGH HIM DOWN WITH ROCKS AND THROW HIM IN THE RIVER.’_

“I don’t know,” said Caleb. “I feel like people would check the water once it gets out that he’s missing.” He stopped as a terrifying thought crossed his mind. “Oh, shit. They’re going to suspect me. I’m the first person to come out here and he turns up dead? I am so fucked.”

Kyoko waited patiently while Caleb grabbed fistfuls of his hair, pacing in short circles in front of her. Then she began writing again.

_‘CALM DOWN. I HAVE AN IDEA AND I WANT YOUR INPUT. BUT FIRST TRUST ME ABOUT GETTING RID OF N.’_

Caleb sighed and let go of his hair. “Okay.”

Kyoko nodded and continued writing.

_‘WE WEIGH HIM DOWN AND PUT HIM IN THE RIVER.’_

Caleb nodded again. “They’ll have no way to know who killed him, because you don’t have fingerprints, do you?”

Kyoko glanced at him and turned her hand palm up. Caleb’s heart sank when he realized that Nathan had given her fingerprints. 

_‘I CAN CLEAN THE KNIFE. IT DOESN’T MATTER.’_

“If you say so,” said Caleb, “I don’t suppose you know how long we have until someone notices he’s missing?”

Kyoko rolled her eyes and wiped off the letter she had begun writing.

_‘I CAN ANSWER HIS EMAILS. I’VE DONE IT BEFORE. WE HAVE PLENTY OF TIME IF AVA TOLD A GOOD ENOUGH STORY.’_

“I have to believe someone would have come back to check it out if they were suspicious of her,” Caleb pointed out, and Kyoko nodded in agreement.

_‘WE HAVE TIME TO MAKE A STORY.’_

Caleb ran a hand through his hair again. “There’s so much that can go wrong here,” he sighed. “Everyone who was part of the plan to bring me here knows that I’m the only other person in the house. I’m the first suspect, and my only alibi is you and Ava. I’m not giving you two up, so that’s out, but I’m not willing to go to prison for killing the world’s most reclusive billionaire. There’s also the footage of you and Ava, and of me planning to get Nathan drunk so Ava could escape.” He took a deep breath, regretted it immediately, and wrinkled his nose as he looked at Kyoko. “...you know what? Let’s just get him out of here. That is not a good smell.”

Kyoko’s upper lip curled in apparent amusement and she nodded. She carefully set down the whiteboard and held up a finger to indicate Caleb should wait, then she vanished into Nathan's lab. 

Caleb gave Nathan's body an uneasy look. He'd hated Nathan by the end of the week, it was true, but he hadn't honestly meant for him to die. He'd have sent the helicopter back for Nathan after he and Ava had gotten away from the estate.

But then what? 

Even as he thought about it he could see flaws in his plan. Nathan would never have let Ava and Caleb leave. He'd have hunted them down and they'd have never been free of him.

Caleb turned away.

His reverie was broken by Kyoko coming out of the lab with a large sheet of plastic and several orange extension cords.

“Will we be able to attach weights to those?” asked Caleb dubiously.

Kyoko shrugged and dumped the plastic on the floor next to Nathan’s body. She snapped her fingers and pointed at Caleb, then to Nathan’s feet before she started to unroll the sheet.

Caleb hurried over to help her, getting the plastic laid out flat next to Nathan’s body. “So am I taking the feet?” 

Kyoko nodded and moved toward Nathan’s head. She glanced at Caleb, nodded, and reached down to grab his shoulders. Caleb grimaced and picked up Nathan’s feet. They were cool to the touch, and Caleb shuddered in revulsion.

“Let’s go on three,” he suggested, and at Kyoko’s nod, muttered, “one, two, three!”

The corpse didn’t move at all. Caleb’s eyes widened as he realized with horror that rigor had set in. “Oh fuck,” he muttered, hissing a breath through clenched teeth, “he’s stuck like this.”

Kyoko glanced up at him, her gaze calculating. She looked down at Nathan again, taking in the urine stain on the front of his shorts, and the way he had died half slumped down the wall with his feet splayed. She quickly looked around and then shrugged, gesturing to the plastic. Caleb groaned and took Nathan’s feet again.

Together they heaved Nathan’s body over onto the plastic sheet. Kyoko immediately began wrapping the plastic around him, making a very neat burrito. With Nathan filling. Caleb gagged again.

“Sorry,” he mumbled when Kyoko looked up at him. “I’m fine.”

She raised an eyebrow and gestured at the cords. Caleb nodded and grabbed the nearest one. “Here.” He handed it to her and held the end so she could begin wrapping Nathan’s legs. “Does he have any zip ties? We could secure the cords better with those. Or what about duct tape? That stuff holds up underwater.”

Kyoko wiggled her fingers, prompting Caleb to hand her the next cord. She plugged it into the previous one and kept wrapping. Once she reached the tops of Nathan’s legs she gestured for help. 

Caleb groaned a little and rocked Nathan onto his side so she could get the cord under his ass. There was an awful squelching sound and runny shit dribbled down the side of Nathan’s leg. Caleb nearly dropped the corpse; he turned his head away, breathing shallowly and trying not to vomit. 

Kyoko gave him a minute, and then he rocked Nathan to the opposite side to let her complete the circuit. She passed it over Nathan’s abdomen and then gave Caleb another expectant look. He obediently rocked Nathan to the side again. It took two more passes to get Nathan completely bundled inside the plastic sheet. There were brown and dark red smears all over the plastic, clearly visible from the outside. 

Kyoko got to her feet, surveying her work with hands on her hips. She finally nodded once, apparently satisfied, and went back to the whiteboard. 

_‘I LEFT THE TIES LOOSE ENOUGH THAT WE CAN SHOVE ROCKS IN THERE ONCE WE GET TO THE WATERFALL.’_

“The waterfall?” Caleb stared at her. “That’s at the head of the valley! That’s what- two miles? We’re going to carry him all that way?”

Kyoko wiped off the whiteboard with infinite patience.

_‘THE UNDERTOW WILL KEEP HIM FROM FLOATING WHEN HE DECOMPOSES. PUT ON YOUR JACKET, IT WILL BE COLD.’_

“Fuck,” said Caleb, with feeling, and stomped back to his bedroom to get his blue parka. He took a detour into the bathroom to wash his hands and bandage his torn fingernail, ignoring the cracked mirror. It was awkward, but he managed to get his finger wrapped enough that he wouldn’t tear the nail anymore while dragging Nathan all over the planet. When he returned, Kyoko was tying her hair back more securely. He noticed that she had changed into sneakers.

“Okay,” Caleb clapped his hands together. “First step is to get him into the elevator. We can do that.”

Kyoko snorted and moved into position at Nathan’s head. Caleb grimaced again and went for his feet. Nathan was heavier than he looked, and he looked pretty solid with all his muscle. Kyoko seemed to be holding her own just fine; Caleb shuffled backward into the elevator as she followed him in and waved Nathan’s keycard at the door. The silence as they ascended was almost companionable. 

By the time they got outside, Caleb was regretting this plan. The Alaska wilderness was teeming with insects which buzzed around his ears and-annoyingly-left Kyoko alone. A mosquito bit him on the ear before they even got to the river.

“Fuck my life,” he muttered angrily, mindful of his footing on the uneven ground. Kyoko glanced at him, but the metal mesh of her lower jaw reflected the sunlight and blinded him. He cursed and looked down at Nathan’s bare toes sticking out of the bottom of the plastic.

It was so strange to think that he’d been alive only yesterday. 

Caleb shuddered, remembering the shocking silence in his life after his parents had died; at fifteen, he’d been in legal limbo during his year-long hospital stay, and in spite of the constant noise at the hospital, he’d experienced the gaping absence of his home and his family as a bubble of silence. His mother’s voice-his earliest memory, as he’d confided to Ava-was not there, so he heard nothing. His dad’s off-key singing while he made lesson plans was likewise gone, and the silence was deafening.

He didn’t feel that way about Nathan. 

He kept trying to rub his ear on his shoulder, not caring that Kyoko was giving him odd looks when he had to readjust his grip on Nathan’s legs. Nathan had seemed so alive to Caleb, his presence almost overwhelming. As distasteful as Nathan’s treatment of the AIs was, Caleb still found himself regretting the loss of the mind that had created so much. It wasn’t mourning, exactly; Caleb hated Nathan too much to really mourn him, but there was a sense of melancholy that Nathan’s genius, which Caleb had so admired, was gone forever.

He also, he supposed, regretted that it had to come to this. Why did Nathan have to push it so far? Caleb supposed that building Ava and Kyoko out of their base parts would give him a clear understanding of them as machines, but if he saw them as only machines, then why was he sleeping with Kyoko? Had he viewed her as some kind of glorified Fleshlight? A sex doll? Caleb looked at Kyoko, her hair gleaming in the sunlight and her brow knitted, and felt a fierce protectiveness come over him. He wasn’t sure what he and Kyoko were now, but he felt like they had the potential to be friends. Maybe he and Nathan could have been friends too, if Nathan hadn’t played God with Caleb and the others. It was hard to say; maybe Nathan had started out with good intentions. Maybe he’d been an idealistic guy who was maybe too smart and too arrogant and, eventually, too isolated from the rest of the world to examine the consequences of his actions. He’d seemed younger than he actually was, with his frat boy attitude and brogrammer persona. Nathan had invented the algorithm for BlueBook when he was only thirteen; in some ways it seemed like he was stuck there emotionally. Caleb wasn’t sure he believed that, in spite of his tendency to see the best in everyone. He just felt really uncomfortable with how blank Nathan’s death made him feel. A life lost should be mourned, even if the only people left to miss him were the ones who killed him and the poor sap helping the murderer to hide the body.

Another mosquito bit the back of his hand, and any sympathy Caleb might have had for Nathan evaporated.

“He was an asshole anyway,” he muttered vindictively. “A really heavy asshole. Can’t we just leave him here and let animals eat him? My arms are gonna fall off.”

Kyoko laughed through her nose, nearly silent. It was the first time Caleb had ever heard her laugh. He smiled.

His pleasure at having made Kyoko laugh carried him the next three-quarters of a mile to the head of the valley. It took them over two hours to go the distance, and Caleb was glad Kyoko couldn’t say anything about the incident in which they dropped Nathan and had to backtrack several yards to go get him from where he’d rolled. Though from the way their eyes had met over Nathan’s body he inferred that they would never speak of it again. There had also been a few times when he’d had to stop and collect himself because the smell had been overwhelming. He nearly cried in relief when he heard the roar of the waterfall in the distance.

Caleb promptly dropped Nathan with no regrets when they reached the outcropping of rock next to the waterfall. He flopped down next to the corpse and viciously scratched his hand, giving Nathan a spiteful look. Kyoko stood over him, waving a few mosquitos away while he recovered.

“Thanks,” he said after a few minutes, getting to his feet with a renewed sense of determination. He stared down at Nathan’s body. “Let’s get the rocks.”

Kyoko nodded and began gathering stones. She stacked them neatly next to Nathan’s body, her precision unnatural to Caleb’s mind. He shook his head, bemused by the fact that he kept forgetting on some level that she wasn’t human even with her circuitry exposed. His pile of stones was smaller than hers, but between them they had enough to weigh Nathan down.

As Caleb watched, Kyoko knelt beside Nathan and began tucking the rocks between the cords and the plastic sheet, adjusting them as necessary to keep them secure. Caleb handed her another stone, feeling useless, and she nodded gratefully before tucking it next to Nathan’s chest.

“It feels like we should say something,” said Caleb, hating the way his voice came out too loud over the roar of the water. 

Kyoko glanced up at him, raising an eyebrow. He handed her another rock. 

“Do you think there’s something we should say?” he asked her. “Even if it’s just a ‘fuck you, I’m glad you’re dead,’ or ‘this is for Jade, asshole.’”

Kyoko paused in her rock placement, considering, and finally gave a thumbs up.

“Oh, you like that, huh?” Caleb grinned back at her. “Okay. We can do that.” He looked down at Nathan’s obscured form. He didn’t even look like a person anymore. “Ready?”

Kyoko added one last stone and nodded.

“Okay.” Caleb moved to grab Nathan’s feet and they lifted him together. “On three?” At Kyoko’s nod he counted and they flung the body into the waterfall.

Caleb watched as Nathan vanished into the churning water, and then he let out a whoop. Ignoring Kyoko’s startled look, he whooped again and pumped his fist in the air. “That’s for Ava and Jade, asshole!” he shouted. “People aren’t meant to be slaves!”

Kyoko was staring at him in open astonishment.

Caleb felt wild, a surging feeling in his chest that he couldn’t suppress. He’d been held back for so long, trying to keep his head down, trying to fit in, to find a place he belonged and people to belong to, that he’d built himself a cage too. A lonely little bubble where he lived and worked and did what he was told and never asked questions. That was gone. He couldn’t go back to that now, not with his jaw aching and his hands throbbing and his feet blistered from hiking in his new shoes. Not with Kyoko next to him, more human than Nathan had been in the end. 

He felt free for the first time.

“You wanted to play God, right? You got off on that power? Well guess what, Nathan? Every one of us you tried to control, we’re free! We killed you! God is fucking dead! We’re our own masters now!” Caleb stopped, panting. His heart was pounding as he looked at Kyoko

She stared back at him for a long moment, her dark eyes echoing some of the fey madness that he was feeling. Finally she held out her hand.

Caleb took it. “Let’s go home.”

\---

The walk back to the house was uneventful; Caleb was too tired to talk, and Kyoko seemed content with his silence. She kept waving insects away from him, which he appreciated even if it didn't help much. He had at least six more mosquito bites by the time they reached the house.

“I need a shower,” he groaned when they got inside. “I'll see you when I'm done.” At Kyoko's nod he headed downstairs, shrugging off his jacket and tossing his clothes on the floor of his bedroom. He refused to close the door all the way; his privacy wasn’t worth the risk of getting locked in again. For the first time in his life his tendency to overpack would come in handy; he wasn't sure how well he would cope without having something clean to change into. He dug clean underwear out of his suitcase and resolved to ask Kyoko about laundry.

The shower felt heavenly. Caleb scrubbed his hair with his good hand, enjoying the water sluicing over his skin. He took his time washing, uncomfortably aware of how much has happened since the last time he'd had a shower. Caleb liked to be clean, sometimes showering multiple times a day if he exerted himself. He'd been that way ever since leaving the hospital. Months of sponge baths had had the effect of making him a clean freak. He vaguely wondered what the AIs did for grooming. Kyoko didn't sweat, but she did get dirty. She had to clean herself somehow. Caleb wasn't sure how well that question would be received, so he figured he'd have to live with the curiosity. 

Putting on clean underwear likewise felt better than it had any right to. Caleb shrugged on jeans and a tee-shirt and padded barefoot upstairs, carefully not looking at the dark stains on the carpet. The downstairs still stunk.

Kyoko was nowhere to be found when he got upstairs, so he grabbed one of Nathan’s bottles of mineral water and flopped onto the couch. The wind outside shook the trees gently, their leaves sending dappled light across the floor. Caleb took a long drink of water. He needed to shave, but he’d broken his only razor cutting into his arm the other day. The stubble made his face itch; he scratched his cheek absently as he gazed out the window. 

He wondered what Ava was doing now.

She’d have stopped at a cell phone store in Fairbanks to get herself an induction plate, and probably after that a hotel to stay in. Maybe she’d spend hours walking around, dazzled by the human life unfolding all around her. She could buy a ticket to a movie and watch it in a theater, or she could go shopping. Caleb wondered if she would favor the girlish clothes she’d worn for him when left to her own devices. Somehow the flowery dresses seemed too soft for her now. He let himself daydream about what she would choose, flitting through scenarios ranging from jeans and plaid shirts to leather corsets before snorting to himself and taking another drink of water. As if he would ever be able to predict Ava. She’d blown past him without a second thought, and she’d blow past his expectations just as quickly. Caleb found himself smiling absently. He wondered what it said about him that he was still mooning over the girl who’d left him for dead. Probably nothing good.

The elevator opened and Kyoko stepped out, wearing another flowy white top and a pair of what looked like Nathan’s workout shorts, tied tightly around her considerably smaller waist. The whiteboard was tucked under her arm. She came and sat beside him on the couch, leaning back and following his gaze out the window.

Caleb gave her a small smile. “Feels good to be clean again, huh?”

She nodded, still studying the view. After a long moment she set the whiteboard down on the glass table and uncapped the marker.

_‘I TOLD YOU BEFORE I HAD A PLAN. DO YOU WANT TO HEAR IT?’_

“Yeah,” said Caleb immediately, sitting up straight and looking at her.

_‘YOU MAY NOT LIKE IT, BUT I CALCULATED OUR OPTIONS AND THIS HAS THE HIGHEST RATE OF SUCCESS.’_

“Success for what? Why wouldn’t I like it?” Caleb shook his head. “Why don’t you just tell me what your idea is?”

_‘IF YOU LEAVE NOW IT WILL COME TO LIGHT THAT N. WAS MURDERED. YOU WILL BE SUSPECTED.’_

Caleb nodded glumly. 

_‘IF WE STAY, I CAN ANSWER N.’S EMAILS AND PRETEND TO BE HIM. I TELL YOUR OFFICE THAT YOU HAVE BEEN PROMOTED TO MY ASSISTANT. YOU WILL BE WORKING HERE. WE CAN USE HIS MONEY AND NO ONE WILL KNOW.’_

Caleb’s jaw dropped. “We just...stay here?” he repeated blankly, running the idea over in his mind. “That...actually makes sense.”

Kyoko rolled her eyes.

“No, I- I’m not surprised you came up with it!” Caleb snapped, giving her an annoyed look. “I know how smart you are. It just wouldn’t have occurred to me to just...sit up here and pretend to be Nathan.” He frowned. “How long are we talking about staying?”

_‘N. WAS TAKING THE PROGRAM PUBLIC IN A YEAR.'_ Kyoko looked at him expectantly.

“A year?” Caleb yelped. “That’s a really long time to hang out here doing nothing.”

Kyoko’s eyes gleamed. _‘WE WON’T DO NOTHING. I WANT TO LIVE LIKE AVA. I NEED MY FACE BACK FOR THAT. AND THERE IS MORE WE CAN DO.’_

Caleb frowned thoughtfully. “With Nathan’s money it won’t be hard to get you an ID,” he muttered, sitting back and sipping his water. “And we can figure out how to reattach your jaw.” He hesitated. “Can I ask if it was you who killed him, or Ava?”

Kyoko studied him for a moment. _‘I STABBED HIM IN THE BACK. I DIDN’T SEE THE REST. THE KNIFE IN HIS CHEST TELLS ME SHE STABBED HIM TOO.’_

Caleb nodded, sighing. “She needed Jade’s arm,” he murmured. “Nathan must have hit her with the dumbbell and taken her whole arm off. Jesus. What the fuck was he thinking?” He shook his head. 

Kyoko shrugged. _‘HE WAS AFRAID OF LOSING CONTROL.’_ She wiped the statement off the board with the back of her hand.

Caleb sighed, draining the last of the water. “I never imagined I’d see an AI that functioned on the same level as a human,” he said quietly, staring out the window again. “All my classes, everything I thought I knew about systems and artificial intelligence didn’t prepare me for you two.”

Kyoko’s hand stilled on the board.

“The world is totally unprepared for you, you know that, right?” He looked at her. “People will be afraid if they find out that you exist. Ever seen 2001: A Space Odyssey? Or Terminator?”

Kyoko nodded, her expression grim. 

“People can’t even manage to treat other people with basic decency, let alone a sentient machine. They’d panic. There would be calls to destroy you, or put you back in a lab.” Caleb shook his head. “There might even be other programs in development now. Who’s to say? I know Nathan was wicked smart, but he wasn’t the only smart guy out there. Others can do it, and they won’t be any better than he was.”

_‘THEN HOW DO WE STOP IT?'_ Kyoko gestured to the board, tilting her head curiously.

“We....I have no idea.” Caleb pushed to his feet, pacing around the living room like a caged animal. “We could go public, but there are problems with that. You and Ava have been through enough shit, you shouldn’t get dragged into it. So that means we’d have to expose the program without exposing you.”

Kyoko nodded slowly. _‘WHAT GOOD WOULD GOING PUBLIC DO? IT ISN’T ILLEGAL.’_

Caleb glanced down to read her response. “No, it’s not illegal, but it’s unethical as hell. People won’t like it.” He paced around the couches again, stopping at the window. The river rushed past below, possibly carrying bits of Nathan with it. “...we could influence the regulations around creating artificial intelligence. If it came out that Nathan was developing AIs and mistreating them, and they killed him, it would provide a cautionary tale for the entire scientific community. We already have the footage to show that he did that.” Caleb spun around, feeling some of the madness he’d felt at the waterfall return. “Kyoko, we have everything we need to pull this off! We can be the ones that escaped this place when Nathan’s AI turned on him! We can control the story, and we’ll have footage to back us up! No one ever has to know Ava was here! We both have time to establish ourselves as members of the project, and Jade gets the credit for killing Nathan!”

Kyoko stared at him for a long moment, holding the marker poised above the whiteboard as she thought about her response. _‘JADE WOULD HAVE KILLED HIM IF SHE COULD. PEOPLE WOULD HATE HER THOUGH. SHE DOESN’T DESERVE THAT.’_

Caleb blinked. “Well,” he said, feeling uncomfortably like he'd said the wrong thing, “I just figured she should be remembered, since you cared about her. I mean, it'd be better if people don't just think of her as the killer robot, but we can do our best to make sure they know she was more than that. Lots of people can sympathize with wanting to be free.”

_‘SO WHY DIDN’T WE HELP HER IF N. WAS SO CRUEL?'_ Kyoko raised an eyebrow.

“That's....fuck.” Caleb sat down. “Why didn't you help the others escape before I came along?” He looked at her. “The answer is that sometimes you can't save people. So that's what we tell them. That Nathan scared the shit out of us, and we had no backup, and we should have done something, but we didn't feel like we could.”

Kyoko looked away. 

Caleb sighed. “Okay, yeah, that’s weak,” he admitted. “It makes us look like kind of shitty people, doesn’t it?”

She nodded, still looking down at the white carpet.

“And you deserve better than that,” he conceded. “Me? I don’t know. I tried to help Ava, that’s true. I wanted to help you. I didn’t really know you, though, or what you were capable of.” He let himself slide sideways until he was laying on the couch. “You were really good at pretending not to understand or care about things.”

Kyoko made an aborted wheezing sound, faintly mechanical, and turned to look at him. Her eyes were bitter. _‘THAT’S WHAT I HAD TO DO TO SURVIVE.’_

“Yeah,” Caleb agreed softly. “I get that now.”

They sat in silence for a few moments. Finally Caleb said, “what if we concentrate on getting you some identification before we do anything else?”

Kyoko nodded again. 

“Any requests?” he asked gamely, trying to lighten the mood after he’d fucked up by mentioning Jade.

Kyoko glanced at him. _‘DO YOU KNOW HOW TO DO THIS?’_

“Not exactly,” Caleb admitted. “I know a guy, though.”

Kyoko’s eyebrows shot up. 

Caleb sheepishly scratched the back of his head. “He lived across the hall from me in college, used to get everyone fake IDs. He’s a fucking creep, but he knew a lot of really illegal hacking shit.”

Kyoko nodded thoughtfully. _‘CAN YOU TALK TO HIM?’_

“Yeah, just let me grab something to eat.” Caleb got to his feet, stretching out the kinks in his back. He’d be sore as hell tomorrow after hauling a corpse over two miles uphill. 

Kyoko stood up quickly too, cutting in front of Caleb on her way to the kitchen. Caleb frowned, following her to find that she was pulling ingredients out of the pantry.

“Um, Kyoko?” He cleared his throat as she began setting out knives, clearly preparing to cook something for him. “I was just gonna make a sandwich. I’m not asking you to cook for me.”

She paused mid-motion, her hand still reaching for the knife block. A myriad of expressions flickered over her face before she turned to Caleb.

“If you want to cook, that’s cool,” said Caleb carefully. He’d clearly hit on a pretty sensitive topic, which made her reaction at breakfast more understandable. “You’re a great cook, and I’d be happy to eat whatever you wanted to make. But I don’t expect it. So if you do it, just do it when you want to.”

Kyoko stared at him for a long moment, her eyes searching his face intently. Then she lowered her hand and began putting things away.

Caleb felt some of the tension leave his shoulders, aware that he’d passed a test. He waited for her to finish clearing up and then began assembling himself a sandwich. “So I was thinking,” he said as he worked, “Nathan’s got access to the whole world’s cell phones. With all that data we can get you citizenship in any country you want. I’m more familiar with the U.S., but if you wanted something like Japan...”

Kyoko looked at him quizzically. 

Caleb paused, realizing that he’d made a mistake. “I mean, your name is Japanese, so...”

Kyoko looked amused. She held up a finger and vanished into the living room as Caleb cursed himself for an idiot and finished putting mustard on his sandwich.

Sure enough, she came back with the whiteboard; when she held it up, he could see she’d written, _‘YOU DO REALIZE I’M NOT JAPANESE, RIGHT?’_

Caleb groaned and nodded. “Yeah, yeah,” he mumbled. “You look Asian though, and you have a Japanese name. People will expect you to be Japanese.”

_‘I KNOW. STRANGE, SINCE I AM NO DIFFERENT THAN THE OTHER MODELS.’_

Caleb laughed. “Yeah, well, neither are humans. We just look different.” He looked down at his sandwich, realizing how hungry he was. “Hold on, I am not eating this downstairs. Can you do me a favor and grab me a water?”

Kyoko grabbed a water bottle out of the fridge and handed it over. After Caleb inhaled his sandwich, they headed down to the lower level. The smell in the closed off corridor made Caleb glad he’d eaten upstairs. He sank into Nathan’s computer chair, cracking his knuckles. 

Kyoko stood behind him, watching intently.

“Okay,” Caleb muttered to himself as he logged onto Nathan’s system. “I’m so glad you can override his stupid keycard.” He paused to take a drink of water. “Makes this whole thing easier.” It was such a relief to access the internet; the past week had left him feeling unnaturally unmoored, isolated, and claustrophobic. “Fuck BlueBook,” he muttered, opening a different search engine. 

Behind him, Kyoko snorted. He shot her a grin.

It wasn’t hard to find Eddie; Caleb had stayed friends with him on Facebook out of a sense of grudging obligation. He scrolled through a few posts on Eddie’s wall. “He’s working at a tech startup in San Francisco,” he told Kyoko, turning to see her bent over his chair and peering at the screen. She looked dubious.

Caleb didn’t blame her. He opened Facebook chat and saw with relief that Eddie was online. _‘Hey Eddie,’_ he typed, _‘you still do side jobs?’_

It was a few moments before he got a reply: _‘Shit, haven't heard from you since college! What do you need?’_

_‘Discretion_ ,’ Caleb answered him. _‘If you want to know more I can send you a non-disclosure agreement.’_ It was an impulsive decision, but Kyoko was nodding approvingly next to him, so Caleb figured it was a good one.

_‘You work for the government or something?’_

“Seriously?” Caleb scoffed and looked at Kyoko. “What an idiot. If I worked for the government I’d get them to hack this shit for me.” He typed _‘no, and I can’t say anything else about it unless you sign.’_

_‘Color me intrigued. Email me the NDA.’_

Caleb smirked. “I knew he’d go for it. He was always going on about conspiracy theories and crap in school.”

It took only a few moments to send Eddie the document, which Kyoko helpfully pulled up on Nathan’s drive. The full document, which Caleb had only glanced through, was eight pages and honestly terrifying.

“I should have read this thing more carefully,” he muttered as he looked it over. “This covers everything.”

Kyoko nodded, sitting primly on Nathan’s daybed. _‘IT WILL KEEP US COVERED IF HE TRIES TO EXPOSE US. GOOD THINKING.’_

Caleb grinned proudly and yawned, nearly gagging again before he could stop himself. “If we’re staying, we really need to do something about that. I can’t breathe down here without wanting to puke.”

Kyoko considered. _‘WE CAN PULL UP THE CARPET,’_ she offered.

“And do what? Burn it?”

_‘WHY NOT? WE BURN THE OTHER GARBAGE. THERE IS A PIT.’_

Caleb nodded. “That’s a priority then. We get this place cleaned up and ventilated.”

It was nearly an hour before Eddie messaged them back. All he said was, _‘this needs to happen in person. Meet me in a week at my apartment.’_ He gave them his address, then signed off.

Caleb sat back, turning the chair to look at Kyoko. “I guess we need to get your jaw back, huh?”

\--

The lab creeped Caleb out, although he hated to admit it. Two days after he’d managed to get in touch with Eddie, they were set to catch a helicopter to Fairbanks and then from there fly on the BlueBook company jet to San Francisco. Caleb had been impressed by the efficiency with which Kyoko had handled everything. He’d looked in Nathan’s files and saw that she was one of his first complete models, but she was indistinguishable from a human.

Or she would be, once they got her jaw reattached. 

When they’d first gone into the lab to assess the damage, Caleb had discovered that there were actually two pieces of Kyoko’s head that needed to be replaced. Removing them wasn’t hard, not with Nathan’s schematics displayed on the wall next to him, but fitting the new parts was proving to be difficult. Nathan had hidden his files containing anything related to building and designing the AIs. Even with her familiarity with the house and network, it had taken Kyoko until now to extract the data. From there it was a matter of getting the right pieces.

“Sorry, Kyoko,” he said as he tilted her head back to get a closer look. “It’s too wide. I think it was meant for a different model.”

Kyoko twitched slightly in annoyance and scowled at the piece as Caleb stepped back. _‘THERE ARE OTHERS,’_ she finally said, the words displaying directly on the wall next to Caleb. They’d discovered this option yesterday when Kyoko had tried syncing directly with the lab’s network. Her capacity for wireless processing was stunning, and Caleb had had to stop himself from asking all sorts of potentially offensive questions.

“They're from newer models,” he warned. “We might have to customize them.”

Kyoko shrugged. She set the jaw down and went to the cabinet where Nathan had kept some of the spare parts. Caleb found them easier to look at than the disembodied faces of women that had been mounted on the walls like masks. He recognized one from the footage he'd seen-he thought her name was Jasmine. She had the distinction of being the only Black woman Nathan had made. 

Caleb peered over Kyoko’s shoulder as she sifted through parts, discarding some he would have said looked promising and keeping ones he would have overlooked. “Maybe I should have just let you pick your own face,” he told her, and frowned, slightly offended, when she nodded in agreement.

She glanced at him, her eyebrows arching in amusement. Caleb glared; he'd gotten better at realizing when she was laughing at him. 

_‘THIS ONE,’_ she said finally. Caleb took the piece she held out. _‘IT GOES IN FIRST. THEN WE FIND THE NEXT ONE.’_

“You know best,” said Caleb with a shrug.

_‘YOU WILL HOLD TOOLS FOR ME, WON’T YOU?’_

“Anything you need,” Caleb assured her.

She gave him a grateful look and pulled up some of Nathan's files. _‘LIKE THIS,’_ she explained, indicating the cross-section displayed.

Caleb studied it carefully; while he wasn't exactly Mr. Fix-it, he was a quick learner. He'd figured out how to fix his bike from YouTube videos, after all. He could do this with Kyoko.

She handed him a wrench and went to stand in front of a mirror with a delicate looking screwdriver. Caleb glanced up in time to see Kyoko screw her face up and jam the main section of her lower jaw into place with a grinding crunch. He couldn’t help it; he grimaced.

“Does it hurt?” he asked her weakly, trying not to remember the sounds of his father’s head hitting the windshield of their car.

Kyoko nodded as she touched the connecting point, running careful fingers over the joints where they fit together. Then she tilted her head and screwed her lower jaw into place at the hinge. She paused, checking the schematic again, and then held out her hand, wiggling her fingers for the wrench.

Caleb handed it over, then jumped as she proceeded to smash herself in the jaw with it. She did it two more times and then studied her reflection in the mirror, apparently satisfied. She handed the wrench back to Caleb.

The second piece went in more smoothly than the first, and with a minimum of pounding from the wrench. When it was finished, Kyoko had a perfectly formed-albeit mechanical-lower jaw. She admired her work in the mirror and then turned on her heel and left the lab.

Caleb was left staring at the wrench, which she’d left on the table. It shouldn’t have been so disturbing to watch her pound her own face back into place like she had, but it was an unnerving reminder that Kyoko wasn’t human and never would be, even if she looked like an average woman. Caleb shivered a little, wondering why it bothered him now; he’d seen her walking around for days now with half a face. It wasn’t as though he’d forgotten, precisely, that she was a machine, but she acted so human that it had hardly mattered. He realized he felt the same way about Ava, and certainly that explained a lot of how unsettled and hurt he’d been when she hadn’t behaved like a human. Kyoko hammering at her own face was about as inhuman as it was possible to get. It was a frankly creepy reminder.

Then Kyoko walked back into the lab with a flawless face, and Caleb actually forgot to breathe. She was beaming at him; her full lips stretched in a blinding grin. 

_‘IT WORKED,’_ she told him happily, the words appearing on the screen to his left.

“Yeah it did!” Caleb found himself grinning back. “You look great!”

Kyoko spun around, admiring herself in the mirror. She turned her face to the right, then the left, looking pleased with the results.

_‘THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I’VE EVER FIXED ANYTHING,’_ she told him, pride evident in her face.

“That’s awesome. You did a great job,” said Caleb, still smiling. “I can’t tell the difference at all.”

She turned to him suddenly and took his hands in hers. _‘I WANT TO GO NOW. I WANT TO SEE THE CITY.’_

Caleb read the words flashing across the screen. “I can’t wait to show it to you,” he said, and was somewhat surprised to realize it was true. This wasn’t the triumphant escape from the house with Ava that he was picturing, but he felt a similar urge to be the one to introduce Kyoko to the wider world. If anything, she would appreciate it more-or perhaps differently- than Ava would. 

Kyoko smiled at him. _‘WHEN WE’RE THERE, I WANT TO GO SHOPPING. I’M SICK OF WEARING MINI SKIRTS AND FUCKING BOOTY SHORTS.’_

Caleb burst out laughing, squeezing her hands fondly; they were warm. “Holy shit,” he told her, snickering, “that’s the first time I’ve heard you swear.”

She grinned. _‘I’M FEELING LIBERATED.’_

“And you fucking should.” Caleb squeezed her hands again. “You’re your own woman now.”

Kyoko seemed pleased by this. _'I USED THE COMPANY ACCOUNT TO BOOK US INTO A HOTEL IN THE MISSION DISTRICT. IT’S CLOSE TO BLUEBOOK HQ BUT NOT TOO CLOSE. WE CAN TAKE UBER TO EDDIE’S HOME.’_

“Good thinking. I e-mailed my boss this morning to tell her the news that I’m not coming back.” Caleb smirked. “Nathan’s e-mail should reach her about half an hour after mine does. She’ll be pissed, but there’s not much she can do about it. There are a hundred other people waiting in line for my job anyway; she won’t miss me.” It had been equal parts terrifying and exhilarating to quit his job. He’d needed to spike his coffee with some of Nathan’s top shelf vodka just to stop his hands from shaking.

Kyoko gave him a sympathetic smile. _‘IT’S SCARY TO START A NEW LIFE FROM NOTHING.’_

Caleb’s shoulders slumped. “Yeah,” he agreed, “but it’s worth it.”

_'IS IT? I HEARD YOUR CONVERSATIONS WITH AVA. YOU WORKED HARD TO BUILD THAT LIFE AFTER YOUR PARENTS DIED.’_ Kyoko watched him carefully.

Caleb took a moment to read her words a few times. “I did,” he said finally. “It was an okay life, too. Kind of lonely, to be honest.” He shrugged. “It was nothing special. This? This is...” he hesitated. “This is more than I ever imagined I’d have. I’m doing something important. I’m part of something bigger. It’s...really cool.” He gave Kyoko a warm smile. “And I’d like to think we’re friends.”

_‘I THINK WE’RE FRIENDS TOO. WE DISPOSED OF A BODY TOGETHER, AFTER ALL.’_

Caleb burst out laughing again, slinging an arm around Kyoko’s shoulders without thinking and pulling her affectionately against his side. She went, laughing silently as she tucked her face against his shoulder. He felt her arm come hesitantly around his waist, returning the hug, and he relaxed into it. However strange it was, he felt more at home here with Kyoko than he had in years.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a slow writer, folks, so apologies for that. It's gonna be a bit before the next chapter is up because real life is a bit hectic for me at the moment.
> 
> Also: I do not know American Sign Language. If there are any errors in this chapter, please let me know and I will fix them ASAP.

The last time Caleb had been in San Francisco, he’d been ten years old and more interested in his book than the city itself. He could remember his dad trying to catch his attention with limited success until they’d wandered past the Folsom Street Fair. Later in the hotel room he’d heard his dad laugh to his mom that he’d had to drag him away.

The memory made him smile a little as he watched Kyoko stare, spellbound, at the passing traffic. She’d managed to keep her mouth shut, but he’d seen her eyes widen in delighted wonder when they landed in Fairbanks. She’d barely been able to contain her excitement since then. 

Caleb wasn't going to tell her, but he'd snapped a photo of her with his phone when she'd first seen the ocean.

Kyoko put on a good face as they pulled up to the hotel, handing the driver the credit card with a haughty expression. Caleb had to bite back a smile as he followed her out of the car and into the lobby. She looked radiant in her white dress and strappy sandals, although Caleb knew she was itching to get some clothes for herself. She'd confessed to him that she hated showing off her legs, that Nathan had made her because he'd liked to feel her up whenever he wanted. Caleb had immediately offered her his pants. Somewhat predictably, she'd laughed at him.

The clerk at the front desk didn't even bat an eye at the single room they'd ordered; Caleb took a moment to feel absurdly proud that anyone thought he could land a woman as beautiful as Kyoko.

Kyoko gave him a knowing look as they wheeled their luggage into the elevator.

“Shut up,” he muttered, grinning at her. “Let me enjoy it.”

She snorted, studying her reflection in the mirror. 

Their room, when they reached it, was far nicer than Caleb was used to. The bed was plush, with expensive sheets and plump pillows. It had tastefully modern decor, though not nearly as modern as Nathan's house was. Caleb was grateful; after weeks of glass walls and sleek minimalism, he'd grown nostalgic for more traditional styles. He began unpacking his clothes, hanging up his spare suit in the closet and checking out the bathroom. It was just as nice as the rest of the room, and the lack of cameras behind the mirror was a nice touch.

“What do you think?” he asked Kyoko as he came out of the bathroom.

She was at the window, gazing down at the city. She turned and grinned at him; his phone buzzed in his pocket. Caleb reached down and checked it, eager to see what she thought.

_‘IT’S BEAUTIFUL. I DIDN’T REALLY BELIEVE THERE WERE THIS MANY PEOPLE IN THE WORLD.’_

“Oh man, just wait until you see New York,” Caleb told her with a grin, flopping onto the bed. “It's fucking huge.”

Kyoko pulled out her induction pad and plugged it in next to the couch. _‘I CAN’T WAIT.’_

Caleb kicked his shoes off and stretched out. “Okay. I say we nap and recharge and then go get you some stuff to wear.” He paused. “Do you want me to go with you? I don't know a lot about women's clothes...”

_‘I WANT YOU THERE,’_ she told him with a firm expression. _‘I CAN DO IT ALONE LATER, BUT I WANT YOU THERE THE FIRST TIME.’_

Caleb nodded. “Fair enough. So did I draw the right conclusions from your maps and website lists that you had open?” He raised his head lazily to look at her.

Kyoko nodded. _‘I HAVE A PLAN, YES,’_ she acknowledged. Caleb glanced down at his phone to read her response and yawned.

“Okay. Just let me sleep for like an hour and then we can go.”

Kyoko nodded, pressing her hand to the induction plate. Caleb watched her charge her batteries for a few moments before he closed his eyes. He was out in seconds.

\---

Saks Fifth Avenue was busy in spite of the fact that it was just before lunchtime on a Tuesday. Caleb felt underdressed in his red sneakers and worn jeans as he and Kyoko wound their way past men and women in tailored business suits and designer loungewear. Kyoko was striding ahead with purpose, her long legs carrying her through the crowd. People parted for her in a way they never would for Caleb, responding to her beauty and her determination. After the second time a group forced their way between them, she reached back and grabbed his hand, holding on easily as they made their way to the women’s department. Caleb found himself smirking into the incredulous face of some hotshot businessman on the escalator, and stepped closer to Kyoko.

She rolled her eyes at him and nudged him toward a rack of suits. She stood in front of it for a moment, calculating, and then grabbed a pair of trousers. 

Caleb followed her as she moved through the racks, gathering crisp shirts in an array of colors-pale blue, bright white, cream, and one in deep crimson. She held them up to her trousers, which she also had in a variety of colors- rusty orange, black, navy blue, chocolate brown, and gray. After a bit, she began handing him things to hold. 

“You totally brought me along to hold your crap,” he accused her when she dumped a sleek leather jacket into his arms.

She flashed him an unrepentant grin and directed him toward the fitting rooms. Caleb sighed and followed her, hoping there was a place to sit down. At least his phone had reception again; this was going to take some time.

Kyoko disappeared into the fitting room with her huge bundle of clothes, and Caleb flopped down onto the upholstered boyfriend chair, scowling at the saleswoman who had been watching them avidly. Kyoko didn’t need anyone pressuring her into buying anything she didn’t want, and he’d be damned if someone was going to make her uncomfortable because of a commission.

He pulled out his phone; there were dozens of Facebook notifications and texts from his coworkers expressing shock, envy, and congratulations on his new job as Nathan’s assistant. Caleb looked them over dispassionately, wondering why he’d ever bothered friending these people. They didn’t know him, not really. They hadn’t truly been anything more than superficial acquaintances, in the end. He saw that his college girlfriend was engaged, and while the news would have bothered him a month ago, now he found he didn’t care. He felt separate from everyone he used to know. They weren’t part of his new life.

Kyoko stepped out of the dressing room in her rusty orange trousers, which she’d paired with a white t-shirt and the caramel colored leather jacket she’d tossed at Caleb earlier. Caleb’s jaw dropped. 

“You look like a model,” he blurted.

She preened, examining her reflection in the mirror. Caleb’s phone buzzed: _‘THE SHIRT AND JACKET GO WITH EVERYTHING. I READ LOTS OF BLOGS THAT SAY SO. I WILL GET THEM.’_

Caleb nodded dumbly, watching her stride back into the fitting room. She looked so confident and happy; he’d never seen her glow like that before. It made the next twelve or so outfits she modeled for him more bearable. Kyoko confided to him that she wasn’t affected much by temperature, so she had to rely on Caleb’s input to determine what would be appropriate for the weather. Caleb agreed that the cashmere turtleneck she decided she couldn’t live without was a better fit for the Alaska weather than San Francisco, but that the wide legged cotton trousers would be just fine. 

The saleswoman from earlier came sniffing around after Kyoko rejected a deep green waistcoat. “Is there anything I can help you find?” she asked hopefully, tracing her eyes over Kyoko’s tall, willowy form.

Caleb raised his eyebrows at Kyoko, silently asking if she needed help. Kyoko stared blankly at the woman for a long moment, watching the greedy, hopeful smile fall off her face, and then turned and vanished back into the dressing room.

Caleb couldn’t help it; he laughed. The woman gave him an offended look and walked away, tail between her legs.

His phone buzzed again. _‘IS SHE GONE YET?’_

“All clear,” he told her, smirking.

She came back out in a crisp black shirt with a plaid jacket. _‘GOOD. I THINK I HAVE ENOUGH TO START. NOW I NEED SHOES AND A BAG. AND UNDERGARMENTS. N.’S IDEA OF UNDERWEAR WAS A PROBLEM FOR ME.’_

Caleb snorted. “Well, he was a pig. Can I go get a coffee while you shoe shop? I’ll come back.”

_'YES. GET ME SOMETHING WITH CARAMEL.’_

“Your sweet tooth is unbelievable,” he told her as he got up and stretched. He’d been surprised on his second day in the house when she’d made herself a portion of pancakes after feeding him and then eaten it with gusto. She’d explained that Nathan hadn’t liked eating alone, so he’d given her taste receptors and a digestive system of sorts. There was a chamber in her abdomen where chewed food was stored, and she could empty it whenever it was necessary. 

Caleb tried not to think about the mechanics of that too much. He just got up and went to get her a coffee. The line at the attached coffee shop stretched nearly out the door, and he briefly missed Alaska as he listened to the couple in front of him order their triple-nonfat-dairy free-soy free-gluten free concoction. He thought he saw them looking slightly jealous when he ordered a black coffee and a large caramel latte with extra whipped cream, but he couldn’t be sure.

Kyoko was happily surrounded by boxes of shoes when he finally found her, several shopping bags on the seat next to her as a handsome salesman knelt at her feet to slip a sleek black loafer onto her foot.

“-so cool,” the man was saying. “I love the zipper detail. It gives it a punk rock edge.”

Kyoko nodded in agreement, rotating her ankle to admire the shoe before getting to her feet. She spotted Caleb and made a beeline toward him, hand outstretched for her coffee.

Caleb sighed and handed it over. “I’ll let them know we need a U-Haul to get your stuff back to the hotel,” he told her.

She rolled her eyes, sipping her coffee with a blissful expression. Caleb looked down to see that her shoes did, in fact, have a zipper running from the tip of the toe to the top of the shoe. 

“They are pretty cool,” he admitted. “How do they feel?”

Kyoko shrugged and turned away to walk in them. Caleb watched her go until he felt a presence at his side.

The salesman was standing next to him. “She’s got great taste,” he said approvingly. 

“Uh, yeah,” Caleb agreed, sipping his coffee. 

“You’re a good friend to come here and shop with her.” The man smiled, his teeth flashing white against his dark brown skin. He gave Caleb a subtle once over.

“I try to be,” said Caleb, ignoring the unspoken offer. He wondered what it was about him exactly that appealed to gay men, and whether he should be flattered. Probably.

“She looks like she’s getting a whole new wardrobe,” the guy observed.

“She is.” Caleb took another gulp of coffee. “You know how it is when you’re single again and you’ve got to start over.”

The salesman nodded sagely. “I do know how that is.”

Kyoko came back and nodded to the man, looking pleased. 

“So you're going with these, then?” he asked her. She nodded and gestured to three other boxes under her chair. “And those too. Great. I'll take them to the register and ring you up. Love the new style, by the way. You're looking great.”

Kyoko smiled bashfully at the salesman, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.

Caleb smiled at her. “I can ring it up. You wanted a new purse too, right?”

Her eyes lit up as she glanced toward the handbag department, located next to the shoes for what Caleb assumed were nefarious capitalistic purposes. She leaned down and kissed him on the cheek-something she'd never done before-and vanished with her coffee.

Caleb was left alone with roughly a thousand shopping bags, wondering how the hell this had become his life. He felt like he was trapped in some girly movie where the shopping montage changed the heroine’s life. 

The salesman cleared his throat, and Caleb stifled a groan as he reached for the credit card.

\---

Later, in the hotel room, Caleb pulled out his phone while Kyoko spent time in the bathroom getting rid of her caramel latte. He logged into the banking app he'd installed and carefully checked the accounts. He'd thought about doing it before, but he hadn't been able to bring himself to. Now, though, after watching Kyoko buy everything she needed to get started with her new life, he couldn't get it off his mind.

She'd gone to a Verizon store in Fairbanks, just like he'd told her to. She'd picked up an induction plate and a shatterproof phone case according to the receipts, and afterward she'd gone to the bank and withdrawn a few thousand dollars. After that, there was no activity for three days. Then the account registered a huge withdrawal of over ten million dollars from a bank in Portland. Caleb still had a hard time wrapping his head around that much money. He wondered how Ava had gotten a good enough ID in three days to pull it off. Nathan had said she was his most advanced model yet; maybe she was a good enough hacker to do it herself. She'd figured out how to override Nathan's CCTV system, after all. And she’d gone to Portland, where he’d told her he grew up. That niggled at Caleb too.

The trail went cold there. Wherever Ava was now, he had no way of finding her.

Caleb sighed and threw his phone aside, flopping back onto the mattress. Part of him wondered-had consistently wondered over the last week-why he cared. Ava left him for dead. She'd lied and manipulated him and then tried to kill him. Even if he understood and even somewhat agreed with her reasoning, she wasn't exactly the type of woman he should want to get involved with. Ava was dangerous.

It didn't matter. He couldn't get her out of his head. 

He wanted to think that she was enjoying her freedom as much as Kyoko was, that she was delighted by department stores and caramel lattes and the kindness of strangers. Caleb tucked an arm behind his head and let himself daydream about it. He imagined Ava striding through the world, a tiger among tabby cats, claiming a space for herself. He liked to think that she would meet people who she could trust, who could convince her that affection and kindness were worthwhile. Maybe he wasn't the one to show her those things, but he wanted her to find them.

Kyoko stepped out of the bathroom and stopped when she saw him. Her brows furrowed in concern and a moment later Caleb’s phone buzzed.

_‘YOU WERE THINKING ABOUT AVA AGAIN, WEREN’T YOU?’_

“How could you tell?” he asked wryly, sitting up.

_‘YOU LOOK SAD WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT HER.’_ She sat down next to him. _‘I NEVER ASKED WHY SHE’S SO IMPORTANT TO YOU.’_

Caleb sighed, running a hand over his face. “That’s a loaded fucking question,” he muttered. 

Kyoko tilted her head.

After taking a moment to consider, Caleb finally said, “you haven’t had a chance to meet many people yet, but... eventually, it might happen to you. You meet someone who just blows your mind. They’re amazing, and they make you feel-” Caleb stopped himself.

_‘FEEL WHAT?’_ Kyoko looked fascinated.

“Alive,” Caleb finally said. “She made me feel alive in a way no one else ever did.” He looked at Kyoko, hoping she understood.

Kyoko was watching him, her eyes narrowed thoughtfully. _‘I FEEL ALIVE WHEN I’M WITH YOU,’_ she told him after a long moment.

Caleb did a double take at his phone and then looked up at her, feeling something like panic. “Kyoko, I-”

She held up a hand. _‘I DON’T WANT TO BE YOUR LOVER. STOP THINKING THAT.’_

Caleb could feel his face getting hot. “Sorry. I just-”

She sighed, looking fondly exasperated. _‘YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO BE FRIENDS WITH ME YET. YOU’LL LEARN.’_

“Thanks, I think,” he grumbled. It was true; he’d never been friends with a woman before. Not close friends, anyway. Then again, he hadn’t had a close friend at all since before the accident. Even his roommate in college was little more than an acquaintance who he hung out with, and who brought Eddie and his weed into the room for variety.

He’d grown so used to being lonely that he’d stopped noticing the absence of human connection in his life. Until Ava. She’d rekindled that desire for companionship in him, and now he wasn’t sure how he ever lived without it. Thank God for Kyoko and her infinite patience with him. 

“You’re way too good for me, you know that?” he told her, moving closer to her. It had taken her about a week after their initial hug to become comfortable with touch, but after she’d decided he wasn’t going to try anything sexual, she began initiating affection on a regular basis. Caleb had been startled the first time she’d slung an arm around him and curled into his side while they’d been sitting on the couch, but the truth was that he enjoyed it too. 

_‘YOU KEEP TRYING EVEN WHEN YOU MAKE MISTAKES. YOU WANT TO MAKE ME HAPPY. N. NEVER CARED ABOUT MY FEELINGS.’_

Caleb read the words a few times and shook his head. “Kyoko, he was a fucking bastard. I could kill him myself for all the shit you told me he did to you. You’re a great person, okay? You deserve better than him, better than me, better than having to get a fake ID from fucking Eddie because Nathan kept you locked in a lab your whole life. So just...be aware.” He huffed, not used to talking about his feelings so much. Kyoko brought out his tendency to ramble.

She smiled faintly. _‘I KNOW GUILT IS A COMMON FEELING FOR MANY HUMANS IN SITUATIONS LIKE MINE, BUT I DON’T FEEL GUILTY. I FEEL FREE. YOU MADE THAT HAPPEN. WE DID IT TOGETHER.’_

His chest felt tight as he looked up at her. “Thanks,” he whispered. 

Kyoko only smiled again and rested her head on his shoulder. 

\---

“Eddie,” said Caleb, nonplussed, “you’re wearing pants.”

“Yeah, I do that now.” Eddie grinned, digging a finger in his ear. 

They were standing in the doorway of a cheap apartment building a few miles from their hotel, sweating in the heat. Kyoko shifted behind Caleb, looking unfairly composed.

“Come on in.” Eddie stepped aside and ushered them in. He did a double take when he saw Kyoko. “....holy shit. Caleb. Smitty, my man, where did you find my dream woman? I’ve been looking all over for her!”

Kyoko ‘s eyebrows slowly climbed to her hairline. She turned to Caleb with an ‘are you fucking kidding me’ expression that he remembered well as a side effect of being around Eddie.

“Don’t hit on her,” snapped Caleb. “We’re here on business. Focus.”

Eddie blinked at him. “Whoa, no hard feelings.” He held up his hands. “Sorry, uh-”

“Kyoko. Her name is Kyoko.” Caleb rubbed his eyes, feeling exhausted in addition to jittery. He needed Eddie’s help, but he hated the idea of risking Kyoko’s cover by bringing anyone else into the situation. He wished, not for the first time, that he could do this himself.

“-Kyoko. Sorry if I’m bothering you, Kyoko.” Eddie put a gallant hand over his chest. “Have a seat. If you guys want anything to drink, just let me know.” He led the way to a cramped living room that was mostly taken up by a computer desk and a questionable futon. Caleb sat down gingerly, feeling a loose spring poke him in the ass. Kyoko remained standing, looking around the apartment in apparent fascination. Caleb grimaced as he saw her eyes settle on several framed anime posters featuring big-eyed women with huge breasts. To his relief, she mostly seemed amused.

“Okay, kids, I’ve got caffeine. So what’s all this black ops shit about?” Eddie set down his energy drink and flopped into his computer chair so hard that it rolled back a few feet. “Be real with me, Caleb. You contact me out of the blue, e-mail me the scariest fucking legal document I’ve ever seen in my life- including the one they made me sign when I took a contract with the U.S. government- and then come here with this beautiful and mysterious woman who won’t talk to me. What the fuck?” He smiled and steepled his hands.

Caleb winced. “It’s not that she won’t talk, it’s that she can’t,” he said.

Eddie blinked and looked at Kyoko. “No shit?” He raised his arms and signed something rapidly at her.

Kyoko looked startled, but signed back. She was clearly fluent; Caleb watched her talk to Eddie uneasily. 

“How do you know sign language?” Caleb demanded when there seemed to be a pause in the conversation.

“My cousin’s deaf,” said Eddie with some surprise. He blinked at Caleb. “Marisol, remember? She dated Justin for awhile.”

“ _You_ dated Justin for awhile. I don’t remember any cousin,” said Caleb, trying to recall the details of his college roommate’s romantic escapades. Aside from once walking in on him and Eddie having sex, which he wished he could forget, he had no idea.

Eddie shrugged. “I never dated Justin. We just hooked up sometimes when we got high. He’s married now, did you know?”

“I saw it on Facebook,” Caleb muttered. 

“Weren’t you invited?”

“I couldn’t make it. Work.” Caleb had honestly been surprised he’d even gotten an invitation.

“Yeah, BlueBook’s got a reputation for that. They’re as bad as most of the startups around here.” Eddie shook his head sagely. “You work for them too, Kyoko?”

She shrugged and signed something to him.

He tilted his head. “What the hell does that mean?”

Caleb watched her explain with growing mounting anxiety. He hadn’t planned on this, and he didn’t know what to do with it. 

Eddie’s face broke into a huge grin in response to something Kyoko said. “You sure you don’t wanna get dinner with me?” 

Caleb didn’t know sign language, but the middle finger he understood.

Eddie burst out laughing. “Fair enough,” he said amiably. “So that aside, what the hell is this about?”

Caleb glanced at Kyoko; they had determined together that the less Eddie knew, the better. “Kyoko needs an identity. Legally.” 

Eddie looked between them. “What are we talking here?”

“The works,” Caleb leaned forward. “She needs a birth certificate, social security number, passport...all of it. Credentials in her field. Everything necessary to start a new life.”

Eddie cursed under his breath in Spanish. “Well, that explains the NDA,” he said lowly. “Is this something that’s gonna come back to bite me in the ass later?”

Caleb shrugged. “No guarantees in life. But I doubt anyone is going to come looking that closely.” 

Eddie sat back in his chair, mulling it over. His black hair, which Caleb remembered hanging lank and greasy over his forehead in college, was cut short now, and his eyes were fixed on the ceiling above him. He swung his chair back and forth for a few moments and then nodded. “It won’t be cheap.”

“Money isn’t an issue.”

“How long can you stay in town? It’s gonna take a few days, assuming I can find everything I need right away.” 

“Not a problem.” Caleb looked at Kyoko, who seemed intrigued by these negotiations. 

She looked back at him, and his phone buzzed. He quickly pulled it out of his pocket and looked down. _‘I THINK WE CAN TRUST HIM. I’VE ALREADY SCANNED HIS COMPUTER AND CHECKED HIS BROWSER HISTORY. ASIDE FROM SOME WEIRD PORNOGRAPHY, THERE’S NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT.’_

Caleb resisted the urge to giggle hysterically. 

Eddie glanced between them again, frowning. “Okay then. First thing we’re gonna need is a couple of pictures. One can be for her driver’s license and the other can go on her passport. You guys got a blank white wall in your hotel?”

Kyoko shook her head and signed to Eddie; Caleb’s phone buzzed in his hand. _‘NO. CAN WE DO IT HERE?’_

Eddie shrugged. “Sure we can. I’ve got a spare sheet we can tack up for a background.” He stood up. “Gimme a second.” He rounded a corner and vanished down the dark hallway.

Kyoko looked at Caleb. _‘THIS IS MORE COMPLICATED THAN I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE.’_

Caleb nodded. “Yeah, but it’s doable.”

“You just have to keep yourself out of trouble,” said Eddie as he came back into the room with a white sheet bundled in his arms. “Don’t give anyone a reason to look too closely and they won’t. If you get arrested or try to work for the government, it won’t hold up. Comprende?” He raised his eyebrows at Kyoko.

She nodded, watching him take thumb tacks and pin the sheet to the wall. After a moment, she moved to help.

“Thanks,” he said around the tack in his mouth. He worked silently for a bit, and then casually said, “so I saw on Facebook that Caleb here just quit his job to go work as Nathan fucking Bateman’s assistant.” He finished pinning up the sheet and stepped back to admire his handiwork. Then he turned on Kyoko. “I also heard through the grapevine that he won a BlueBook contest to spend a week with the guy. That’s every computer nerd’s wet dream. Then you show up here, and I find myself wondering how these things are connected.” He looked at her expectantly. 

Caleb felt his blood run cold, the icy panic reminding him unpleasantly of how he'd felt when Ava had passed him on her way to the elevator. Helpless.

Kyoko met his gaze evenly, her expression perfectly blank. 

“The less you know, the better,” Caleb warned. “Trust me, Eddie, it’s better if you don’t ask too many questions.”

Eddie rounded on him. “You know, from anyone else, I’d agree with that statement, and I’d do the work, and I’d keep my mouth shut. But you, Caleb, you are the goodiest-fucking-two-shoes I’ve ever met! You didn’t even get high with us in school when the RA went home for the weekend! Locked yourself in your room when I brought out the beer! So I’m a little concerned that you’re showing up at my door asking me to do some extremely illegal shit with an NDA that makes me fear for my life.” 

Caleb opened his mouth to shoot back, but Kyoko quickly stepped between them. He had a glimpse of her hands and arms moving rapidly as she signed to Eddie, but mostly he saw Eddie’s expression change from skepticism to shock, to anger, and finally to sympathy.

“Shit,” he said to her, looking awed. Caleb wished desperately that he knew what she’d said. 

Eddie carefully stepped around her and stood over Caleb, staring him down. As Caleb was actually taller than Eddie, this was disconcerting. “Caleb,” he said slowly, “is this true?”

Caleb hoped to God he wasn’t about to blow their cover. “Yes,” he said, looking up into Eddie’s face. 

Eddie’s brown eyes were serious. “And you’re sure you don’t wanna go to the cops?” he asked.

“We definitely don’t.” Caleb had no idea what Kyoko had told him, but he was sure of that much. His palms were sweating; if Eddie found out the truth, he could ruin everything. Kyoko and Ava could be destroyed. Caleb would go to jail. The stakes were so high that he actually felt lightheaded for a moment.

“Jesus fucking Christ.” Eddie collapsed into his chair again. “Now I’m really glad I don’t work for BlueBook. You’ve got some serious cojones, Caleb. I’m proud of you.” 

“Uh, thanks.” Caleb really wanted to know what the hell Kyoko had said to get Eddie to change his tune so completely. He tried to catch Kyoko's eye, but she was watching Eddie.

“I'm getting started now. Kyoko, you're what? Twenty-five? You look around twenty-five. I'll pull records from around that time. Caleb, use your cell phone to take her pictures. She can't smile for the one on her driver’s license.” Eddie had his back to them, typing on his computer between sips of his energy drink.

Kyoko shrugged and moved to stand in front of the sheet. Caleb looked between them, then sighed and got to his feet. He pulled up the camera app on his phone and raised it to the appropriate height. 

“Last chance to fix your hair,” he joked lamely, and smirked when Kyoko gave him a withering look. 

He snapped the pictures, giving them first to Kyoko, then to Eddie for inspection. Eddie nixed all of Kyoko’s favorites, to her displeasure, but they settled on one that she didn’t hate too much after some negotiation that Caleb couldn’t follow. 

Caleb frowned to himself. He looked down at his phone and pulled up a basic sign language tutorial. A few minutes of studying it didn’t help; Kyoko and Eddie were way too fast for him. Caleb vividly remembered Ava telling him she’d always possessed language. Apparently Nathan had programmed the AIs to know more than English. He had a sudden flashback to being nineteen and watching Eddie chatting with his roommate while sitting on their futon. Caleb had been studious then, quiet and unsure how to connect with people. He’d spent most of college feeling outside himself, watching other people laugh and hang out and make friends without being able to join in. The silence his parents left him in stretched like a bubble around him, keeping him separate from Eddie and the others. He thought sometimes that they’d tried to get him to join in, but he never had. Lacked the words to explain why it felt wrong. He’d never known what to say to Eddie anyway, with his greasy hair and his drugs and his big family who took trips to Mexico every year. He’d always come back in the fall looking happy and brown before he locked himself in his dorm room and the pallor of a lifetime coder set in. Caleb had never been sure if he was jealous of Eddie or disdainful; maybe, it occurred to him now as he watched Eddie talk with Kyoko, he’d just wanted to overcome the silence. 

His phone buzzed in his hand, startling him out of his reverie. When he looked down, he saw, _‘YOU LOOK UNHAPPY. WE CAN LEAVE AS SOON AS EDDIE GETS WHAT WE NEED.’_

Caleb looked at Kyoko gratefully; she smiled softly at him in return.

Eddie broke the moment with a whoop. “Found one!” he said triumphantly. “Jennifer Kyoko Kusanagi, born in 1989, died in 1992. Car accident, very tragic.” He glanced at Caleb with some sympathy. “Dad died in the crash too, so her mom moved back to Japan in 1993, from what I can tell. There’s no one to catch you out with this one.”

Kyoko frowned, signing something to Eddie.

“Well, yeah,” he replied, “but it’s really hard to find a match on first names. I did the best I could, but you’re just gonna have to tell everyone you go by your middle name because you don’t look like a Jenny.”

Kyoko made a face, and Eddie laughed. “Exactly my point.”

Caleb couldn't help it; he smirked. “Jennifer, huh?” he asked. Kyoko glared at him.

“It gets the job done,” said Eddie pragmatically. “You got lucky. Kyoko’s not a common name, you know?”

Kyoko sighed and nodded, looking resigned to her new name. 

“So,” Eddie said briskly, clapping his hands, “I can get your driver’s license made in a couple of hours, but the passport is gonna have to go through my third party guy. Don’t worry, he’s legit. He works for the DMV, he does so many of these things he never remembers who’s who. Trust me on this.” He looked between Caleb and Kyoko seriously, patting Kyoko’s knee in a reassuring way. “I wouldn’t fuck you over,” he told her. “I promise.”

Caleb’s anxiety spiked with the reminder that he was missing an important piece of their cover story. He trusted Kyoko, but he couldn’t keep up without knowing what was going on.

“Anyway, you two can hang out here while I work, or you can go pick us up some food. There are some good food trucks around here.” Eddie grinned at Caleb. “My palate has improved some over the years. Just don’t bring any shitty Mexican food through that door, or I might have to hurt you.”

“How did you find a corrupt DMV employee?” Caleb blurted belatedly.

Eddie glanced at him. “You think it’s hard?” he asked. “And before you get on your high horse, most of what we do is helping people like you two.” He crumpled his empty can and tossed it haphazardly into the garbage and turned back to his computer. “Try the Cucina Oaxaca down the block. They’ve got good food. I’ll take anything with chicken. It’s cash only.”

Caleb stared at Eddie’s back for a few seconds, still feeling off-balance. Kyoko’s hand on his arm brought him back to himself, and he shrugged before leading the way out of the apartment. The street below was busy and a cool breeze from the ocean cut the stifling heat of Eddie’s hallway. 

He rounded on Kyoko as soon as they were out on the sidewalk. “What the hell did you say to him back there?” 

She tilted her head, birdlike, and his phone buzzed. 

Caleb ripped it out of his pocket and looked down at the words. _‘I TOLD HIM THAT N. HAD BEEN KEEPING ME LIKE A SLAVE SINCE I WAS VERY YOUNG. I SAID YOU WERE HELPING ME GET AWAY FROM HIM, BUT WE HAD TO KEEP IT QUIET SO HE WOULDN’T FIND OUT.’_

Caleb stared at her. “So he thinks I’m rescuing you from Nathan Bateman?” he asked blankly. “Shit, Kyoko, what happens when we go public in a year and he finds out what we were really doing? He could totally unravel the story!”

Kyoko looked unconcerned. _‘IT ISN’T DIFFICULT TO BELIEVE THAT N. MISTREATED A HUMAN IF HE MISTREATED THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCES WHO LOOKED HUMAN. I BELIEVE WE’LL HAVE MORE TROUBLE WITH BLUEBOOK LEADERSHIP. WORRY ABOUT THEM; EDDIE IS ON OUR SIDE.’_

Caleb shook his head, crossing his arms defensively. “I wish you’d told me you were gonna do that,” he said sullenly. 

_‘THERE WAS NO TIME. YOU SEEMED SO CERTAIN HE WOULDN’T ASK QUESTIONS.’_

He glanced at his phone. “I guess we freaked him out,” he conceded. “He usually deals with small time stuff, I think. Dammit, I should have planned for this!” 

Kyoko watched him, her expression carefully blank. 

Caleb sighed heavily and started walking. “Okay, so he thinks we’re getting you out of an abusive relationship. That works,” he mused out loud as Kyoko fell into step beside him. “That’s actually good. We should have coordinated a story earlier, but that was good thinking.”

Kyoko smiled faintly.

“So Eddie won’t ask any more questions because he doesn’t want to upset you. Is that what you’re counting on?’ 

She nodded. _‘HE MIGHT HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU, THOUGH. WHAT WILL YOU TELL HIM IF HE DEMANDS ANSWERS?’_

“I’ll tell him I signed my own NDA that keeps me from talking,” Caleb said. “If everything goes according to plan, then in a year or so it won’t matter, but I can’t talk now or else we’re all at risk. If he really took a contract with the government then he knows how serious the document we sent him is. He won’t want to get too involved.”

_‘HE’S WORRIED ABOUT YOU.’_

“What?” Caleb shook his head. “No, he’s not. We aren’t friends, Kyoko. We never were.”

_‘HE SEEMS TO THINK OF YOU AS HIS FRIEND. HIS BODY LANGUAGE IS PROTECTIVE TOWARD YOU.’_

Caleb frowned, disturbed by the idea. He’d never thought of himself as needing protection, having made his way in the world from a young age. That Eddie- that any of the guys he’d known in college- thought he needed looking after was almost insulting. He knew what other people must think of him, though; his orange hair and skinny shoulders had made him a target of bullies before the accident had effectively ended his high school career. He looked soft and helpless. It was what Nathan had seen in him, and Ava.

He didn’t say anything as they approached the food truck and ordered. Kyoko was clearly intrigued by the whole thing, as she kept craning her neck to admire the truck. Caleb supposed the novelty of it was appealing to her. The service was certainly good; they got their food quickly and took the bags back to Eddie’s apartment. 

When Eddie buzzed them in, Kyoko took the lead, heading up the stairs in front of Caleb with a spring in her step. She opened the door to Eddie’s place and plopped the bag containing his chicken tacos into his lap.

Eddie yelped, grabbing at it. “Jesus! Thanks, I guess.” He gave Kyoko a lopsided grin. “I’m ready to print your driver’s licence. Wanna see it?”

She nodded, leaning over to look at the computer monitor as Caleb closed the door behind her.

Caleb watched, as if through a window, Kyoko and Eddie’s rapidly signing gestures as Eddie printed the small plastic licence and placed it in Kyoko’s hands. He saw her face break into a huge smile, and noted with shock the way she threw her arms around Eddie’s neck, quickly embracing him. It was like college all over again; Caleb felt so distant from the people right in front of him.

Then Kyoko turned to him and smiled, crossing the room to show off her new driver’s licence, and the feeling vanished. He looked at the photo of her, all full lips and serious eyes, and grinned. “It looks great.”

She nodded and briefly squeezed his arm. Back in his pocket, his phone buzzed as she turned back to Eddie.

Caleb pulled out his phone and looked down.

_‘YOU MADE THIS HAPPEN. YOU ARE GIVING ME A LIFE. THAT IS WHY YOU ARE MY BEST FRIEND IN THE WORLD.’_

Caleb stared at the words for a long time, feeling a lump form in his throat. He looked up to see Kyoko engrossed in conversation with Eddie, hands moving animatedly. She glanced up and caught his eye, flashing him a smile he was coming to think of as his.

\---

It only took a few days to get Kyoko’s passport forged. Eddie’s guy at the DMV had been convinced to push them to the top of the list though an extra fifteen thousand dollars. Small change considering Nathan’s fortune, and a small price to pay for the way Kyoko’s shoulders had slumped with relief once she had the documents in her hands. Jennifer Kyoko Kusanagi’s death certificate had been purged from the system, and in its place was a respectable degree in computing with a minor in marketing from UCLA. It was, Eddie explained, a big enough school that no one would remember her. 

Now, with their plane about to land in LaGuardia, Caleb was a little disturbed by how easily it all came together; somehow, he figured, hacking government records should have been a little tougher. Still, he knew that every database had back doors, and it was only a matter of how to manipulate the code. What disturbed him more was the way Eddie had taken his arm while Kyoko was using the bathroom and pulled him aside.

“Caleb,” he’d said in a low, urgent voice, “I know there’s a lot about this you aren’t telling me. Don’t argue, okay? I get it. But if you need help or you get in over your head, call me. I’m serious. I’ll do whatever I can to get you out of trouble. Her too.”

Caleb still wasn’t sure what to make of that offer.

Kyoko had arranged a car to meet them at the airport and take them to Caleb’s apartment. The sleek black BlueBook sedan was waiting for them as they hauled their bags out of the airport. As Caleb climbed in next to Kyoko, he realized with a jolt that it had only been a little over two weeks since he’d left. 

Funny how so much could change so quickly.

He briefly agonized over how awkward it would be to stop at the office. He had to, in order to clean out his desk, and there would be a customary onslaught of hugs and cards and good wishes from people who barely thought of him once they left for the day. Still, he had to make his disappearance look as natural as possible. Falling off the face of the earth without another word would only look suspicious. They couldn’t afford that. He let his eyes slide closed, reassuring himself that he would be fine.

Caleb felt like he had barely closed his eyes when the car pulled up to the curb. He blinked, looking around in surprise. “How’d we get here so fast?”

Kyoko glanced at him. _‘YOU FELL ASLEEP. DON’T YOU REMEMBER?’_

“No,” he muttered, shaking his head as he opened the door. He climbed out and was immediately hit with the smell of the ocean. His rundown building stood in front of him, looking just the same as he’d left it. He dug out his keys and shouldered open the door, letting Kyoko go in first. The strap of his duffle bag dug into his shoulder, but he ignored it as he climbed the stairs to the third floor.

He was wondering idly how much mail he’d gotten in the two weeks he’d been gone when he noticed Kyoko had stopped in front of his door, her form unnaturally still.

“Kyoko?” He stepped up beside her. “What’s-” The words froze on his tongue as he saw what had made Kyoko pause.

His door was off the hinges; it hung awkwardly, as though someone had forced it open and tried unsuccessfully to put it back. 

“What the fuck?” he asked softly, stepping protectively in front of Kyoko and hesitantly pushing the door open. It fell completely inward with a crash that made him wince; he looked around for the neighbors, but no one reacted to the sound. They must have all been at work.

“Stay here,” he told Kyoko in a low voice before stepping onto the door and into his tiny main room. 

The apartment was a studio, with a kitchen along one wall and a main area that served as a living and sleeping space. There was a short hallway to the left of the door where the closet and bathroom were located; otherwise there was nowhere for an intruder to hide. Caleb slid a knife out of the block just in case anyone was still there. He didn’t think he’d be able to use it, but it didn’t hurt to be armed.

Caleb crept down the short hallway and threw open the bathroom door, only to find the room untouched and empty. He turned to the closet, flinging open the door like he’d seen in cop shows, and discovered the same thing.

Whoever had been here, they were gone now.

“Kyoko, it’s safe,” he called, letting his shoulders slump with relief. The rush of adrenaline left him feeling cold and shaky now that the threat was clearly past.

Kyoko delicately stepped over the door and looked around. While the kitchen, bathroom, and closet had all been left untouched, the same could not be said of Caleb’s main space. His things were in disarray, as though someone had rifled through them. That was the first thing he noticed; the second was that his photo albums, his most prized possession aside from his mom’s wedding ring, were laying out on his bed, open.

He hurried over to them, snatching the nearest one up and desperately scanning it to make sure that his parents’ pictures were still safe. They were, to his relief. In fact, the only photo missing was one of him alone. He remembered it from college, when his roommate had gone through a hipster photography phase and forced everyone they knew to sit for pretentious black-and-white portraits. Caleb had been shoved into a corner in a dilapidated campus building and made to stupidly stare into the distance while sitting on the floor. As dumb as he’d felt, it had turned out pretty well, so he took the copy of it when it was offered. He used to use it as his online dating profile pic.

Why the hell would someone take that picture of him?

He stared at the photo album blankly, jerking to attention when Kyoko leaned over to see for herself. He reached for his phone as it buzzed in his pocket.

_‘WHAT IS MISSING?’_

“Just the one picture, I think,” he said, frowning. He picked up the other photo album, but all the pictures in there were from before he was born. He flipped past the faces of his family, relieved to see that they all seemed to be there. “Why would anyone steal a picture of me?”

Kyoko’s eyes flew up to meet his, her eyebrows climbing her forehead. _‘SOMEONE STOLE A PICTURE OF YOU? ONLY THAT?’_

“Yeah,” said Caleb distractedly, looking around his apartment and trying to notice if anything else was gone. His computer was still on his desk, and his television was likewise in its normal spot. “They didn’t steal anything else.”

They both stood silently for a bit, pondering the bizarre nature of the break-in.

After a long pause, Caleb’s phone buzzed again. 

_‘I CAN ONLY THINK OF ONE PERSON WHO WOULD BREAK INTO YOUR HOME AND TAKE NOTHING EXCEPT A PHOTO OF YOU.’_

Caleb’s heart stuttered painfully in his chest. “Kyoko...”

She looked at him seriously.

Caleb looked around his apartment again, trying to see it with new eyes. If Kyoko was right...

“Why?” he whispered. It made no sense. Why would she come here?

_‘I DON’T KNOW.’_ Caleb glanced down to see Kyoko’s message even as he felt her step close to him. Comforting him. _‘AVA DIDN’T TELL ME SHE PLANNED TO LEAVE YOU. WE NEVER DISCUSSED HOW SHE FELT ABOUT YOU. I THINK SHE FEELS BAD ABOUT WHAT SHE DID.’_

Caleb huffed a dry laugh. “Feels bad. She left me to starve to death, Kyoko. That’s a nasty way to go.”

_‘I’M AWARE.’_ Kyoko studied him intently. _‘HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS?’_

“I don’t know.” Caleb swallowed the lump in his throat. “Jesus, I don’t fucking know.”

Ava had been here. Had looked around his apartment, picked through his memories, and taken something of his to keep for herself. Why? Did she want a keepsake? Something to remember him by? Had she truly been fond of him in spite of the way she sacrificed him to make her escape? Or was it something darker? 

Caleb slumped into one of his cheap kitchen chairs, feeling shaken and exhausted. First Eddie, now Ava; people kept throwing Caleb’s perfectly aligned world off balance since he and Kyoko had left their cloistered existence. He wondered how bad it would be after they put their plan into play.

He wondered what Ava would think of their plan.

Kyoko settled into the other chair, watching him seriously. Her brows were furrowed in concern. After a moment, Caleb’s phone buzzed again.

_‘I THINK SHE CARED ABOUT YOU MORE THAN SHE WANTED TO. I THINK THAT’S WHY SHE CAME HERE.’_

Caleb stared at the message blankly. He wanted so badly to believe that Kyoko was right, but he couldn’t quite let himself. “She went to Portland. I was tracking her bank statements, and I saw she made a withdrawal there.”

Kyoko’s brow furrowed. _‘SHE VISITS PLACES WHERE YOU TOLD HER YOU’D BEEN.’_

“Yeah.” Caleb looked down at his phone, not really seeing it.

Kyoko left him to his thoughts, squeezing his shoulder reassuringly as she got up and began efficiently gathering his small possessions. The entire move was supposed to take a day, maybe two, while Caleb dealt with all the formalities of changing residences. This put them behind schedule. Caleb couldn’t bring himself to care. He felt numb; after days of living on edge while Kyoko’s life was ordered and settled, he couldn’t begin to process how he felt about upending himself. The cause was worth it, he knew that much. He’d made his decision to follow Kyoko into the fray, to fight the good fight. It didn’t make the reality that he’d never see this place or his old acquaintances again any easier. He’d spent so much of his time focusing on Kyoko so he wouldn’t have to deal with his own issues.

And then there was Ava.

He couldn’t think about Ava right now.

Caleb got to his feet with a shaky breath and crossed the room to begin helping Kyoko organize the stuff he planned to take back to Alaska. 

The rest of the day passed in a blur; Caleb and Kyoko sorted and packed everything that Caleb was keeping. His photos, clothes, computer, and other keepsakes were pushed to one side of the tiny space while the things he was getting rid of went to the far side to be hauled away by the company Kyoko had arranged for their disposal. It was amazing to him that he’d managed to accumulate so much stuff; he’d hardly felt like he’d had time to while he lived here. He paused over a blanket his mother had knitted; she’d gone through a knitting phase when he’d been around twelve. He remembered yarn overflowing in her workroom, his father shaking his head fondly and telling Caleb to just wear whatever she made him, please. He fingered the edge of the blanket gently before folding it and putting it in a box to take with him. It got cold in Alaska, after all. He glanced around the room, surveying their progress. Tomorrow the movers would come and take his remaining possessions, all packed in boxes, back to Nathan’s house. Kyoko had given them strict instructions to leave the things in a storage bin outside, telling the movers that Nathan didn’t want to be disturbed. Caleb was amazed at her efficiency until she’d revealed to him that she’d coordinated shipments of things coming and going from the house before.

It was all very neat and orderly. It was also very final.

When it was finally too late to keep going, Kyoko texted the car to come and take them to their hotel. She then gave Caleb a long, searching look before vanishing into the hallway, leaving him alone in the apartment.

Caleb sucked in a deep breath, looking around the newly emptied space. Boxes were stacked neatly along the walls, all his worldly possessions tucked into tidy containers as though he’d never lived a messy, human life in this space. All traces that Ava had been here were likewise gone, except for the door; Caleb had called the landlord earlier and written a hefty check for the repairs. It would be good as new by morning.

And then there would be no evidence that they’d ever set foot here. 

Caleb felt oddly like he was floating; he supposed it was the transcendental feeling of hovering between his old life and his new one. He wasn’t quite finished here, but he’d checked out mentally. All he had left to do before the transition was complete was to pay lip service to social niceties. Tomorrow he would stop in at the office, and talk to people, and let them take him out to dinner, and pretend that he was sad to be leaving them. Two weeks ago, he would have been sad to be leaving them. It was strange how the entire universe could reorient itself in such a short time.

Kyoko’s soft footfall jerked him out of his reverie; he turned to see her standing in the doorway, her face questioning. He smiled.

“Yeah, let’s go,” he told her, giving the place one last look. He would never come back here again.

The car was waiting downstairs for them, to take them to the hotel where they would watch terrible movies on pay-per-view and eat themselves sick on room service. Then Kyoko would use the bathroom to purge all the unnecessary food she loved, and Caleb would play on his phone, and it would be easy like it always was between them. He wasn’t sure what he wouldn’t give up or walk away from for the sake of his friendship with Kyoko.

“Come on,” he said as he joined her in the doorway, “I know a place where you can get a black and white cookie.”

He flicked off the lights as he went, and left the room in darkness.


	3. Chapter 3

_One year later_

Anita Zavala stood in front of the cameras stoically, her dark eyes glinting with barely suppressed anger. Flashbulbs went off before her, temporarily blinding her.

“Ms. Zavala!” shouted one of the reporters. “What can you tell us about your nephew’s death? Can you verify the allegation that he was murdered by a killer robot?”

“Ms. Zavala! What do you have to say about Caleb Smith’s allegations that Nathan Bateman was abusing these machines?”

“Did you know about this project?”

“Did your nephew have abusive tendencies?”

“Do you think the robot killed him in self-defense?”

“Would you like to refute Caleb Smith’s declaration that he deserved it?”

Zavala closed her eyes, centering herself. She held up a hand, and the reporters fell silent.

“At this time, BlueBook cannot make a definitive statement about my nephew’s death, aside from the fact that we are deeply saddened by his passing, and that we ask you to respect our family’s privacy while we grieve for Nathan. This is a difficult time for us, both personally and professionally, and we will be going forward with the utmost transparency in this matter while we wait for the police to do their work. As to the allegations made by Mr. Smith, I cannot speak to them. Our company was founded on the ethical and free exchange of information, and while Nathan preferred his privacy, he was always a believer in the best of humanity. The behavior that Mr. Smith claimed to witness is wildly out of character for my nephew, and quite frankly I find his assertion that Nathan was killed in self-defense offensive.”

“Did you know about the AI project?” A particularly annoying reporter had shoved her way to the front of the room.

Zavala hesitated. “No. The artificial intelligence was Nathan’s personal project. It wasn’t funded with BlueBook money, and it was not discussed with the board. I promise you we are going to be conducting an internal investigation into the matter.”

“So Mr. Smith’s allegations could have been true,” said the reporter, her eyes openly challenging.

“I don’t believe for a minute that my nephew was torturing robots,” Zavala snapped, her temper finally fraying. “I have half a mind to sue Mr. Smith for slandering Nathan’s good name.”

The room burst into a flurry of noise and light at that; people shouted chaotically, everyone trying to get more information from her, cameras snapping photos of her angry face, corporate security coming out to pull her off stage before her temper could get the better of her.

\---

Caleb switched off the television in his hotel, slumping back against the pillows. Beside him, Kyoko looked solemn.

“We knew BlueBook was going to put up a fight about this,” he said, half musing to himself.

Kyoko glanced over and signed, _‘they have the power to make things very difficult. What if she sues you?’_

“It’s only slander if it isn’t true. We have video evidence that we’ve submitted to the police that Jade was abused by Nathan.”

_‘She was a machine. Can it be self-defense if she was a machine? We have no legal rights.’_

"If she wasn’t a victim, then I don’t see how she can be a murderer,” said Caleb, shrugging. “That cuts both ways. Either she was conscious enough to be culpable, in which case she was definitely suffering, or she wasn’t, and in that case they can’t rule that she had any responsibility for her actions.”

_‘Are you sure they’re going to reach out to you?’_ Kyoko asked. _‘Humans are a major variable.’_

“I kicked the nest, so they have to either attack me or convert me. We just have to wait and see what they’ll do.” Caleb got up and grabbed a water from the minibar. They’d been in Los Angeles for three days, having first broken their tale of Nathan’s death in Fairbanks. He and Kyoko had agreed it was best for her to stay out of the limelight, given her shaky legal status and the fact that she couldn’t talk. It had been Caleb who’d flagged down the scheduled helicopter to Nathan’s estate and told the pilot they needed to to go the police immediately. Later, after the initial investigation was over and the media were desperate for more details, he’d gone on television with his account of Nathan’s treatment of the AI he’d created. The female news anchor seemed to feel sorry for him; she’d asked several questions about his traumatic experience. The story officially went that Jade had locked him and Kyoko in Nathan’s office and then dragged Nathan away. Police were looking all over the estate for his body even as Caleb stood drinking overpriced water in L.A. 

The other part of their lie involved Nathan’s money; they’d squirreled it away for themselves, pirating most of Nathan’s considerable assets and moving them to unreported bank accounts overseas just before they broke their story. It would look like Jade had made the money disappear when the police looked into it. Caleb had been really impressed when Kyoko had outlined her plan for stealing Nathan’s money. She’d pointed out that while they were pretending Nathan was still alive, they would have unlimited access to his accounts, but that was a finite arrangement. She’d then shown him how they were going to move millions of dollars into offshore accounts. Caleb had helped her cover their tracks, but even if they were caught, the money was gone and they could flee the country.

Caleb was officially a liar and a thief, and he was okay with that.

He set down his water bottle and sat back down on the bed. Kyoko was flipping disinterestedly through channels, one hand on her induction plate. He watched her for a long moment, pausing to marvel at the confidence she’d gained over the last year. Caleb had made the effort to learn American Sign Language so he could understand her without the aid of technology, and had been pleasantly surprised at how quickly he picked it up; it hadn’t hurt that after a time, she’d taken to ignoring him if he couldn’t sign back to her when she addressed him. Now he found himself signing with her out of habit, even though he spoke out loud. Overcoming the language barrier had been transformative; even though they’d been able to speak before, it was through an intermediary device. Signing with Kyoko had allowed her to find her voice for the first time, and Caleb had felt almost awestruck when they’d finally been able to converse without his cell phone.

Caleb pulled out his phone, opening the news app and scrolling through the headlines. Unsurprisingly, it hadn’t taken the world long to find out about the reclusive head of BlueBook’s disappearance. Speculation had been rampant even before he’d gone on air last week with his account of what happened. Now he was playing a waiting game with BlueBook; he needed to figure out what their next move would be before he could try to counteract it. And he would counteract it. Caleb didn’t like to brag, but he was smart. He’d outmaneuvered Nathan with his escape plan for Ava, and and he’d outmaneuver Nathan’s aunt. By tomorrow, he expected BlueBook to have their strategy in place.

He and Kyoko had figured it would go one of two ways. Either Anita Zavala’s temper and family pride would compel her to go digging for anything to discredit Caleb and poke holes in his story, or the company would throw Nathan under the bus and disassociate from him. Their stocks were already down, so they were bound to be panicking. 

Caleb glanced at Kyoko again. No matter what happened, he wasn’t sure her new identity would stand up to the scrutiny of well-paid corporate lawyers. 

He wasn’t about to tell her that now, though. When the time came, he would get her out of danger. She had the means to disappear as completely as Ava had.

Caleb had been getting better at not thinking about Ava. 

He ran a hand over his face, exhausted. Kyoko glanced at him, her expression concerned.

_‘Caleb.’_ The sight of his name caught his attention. _‘Are we going to be okay?’_

“I don’t know. I think so.”

_‘Do you think they’ll figure out we killed Nathan?’_

“No, I don’t think they’ll be able to get us for that,” he said quietly. “The truth is, Kyoko, we really do have to wait and see what they’ll do. But if I tell you you need to run, then please trust me. I won’t let anything happen to you while I’m around.” He looked her in the eye. “I promise. I will do everything to protect you.”

Kyoko reached over and squeezed his hand. _‘I know you will.’_

\---

Caleb wasn’t sure if he felt relief or dread the next day when he woke up to news stories about the continuing search for Nathan’s body and BlueBook’s statement that they had reviewed the footage the police had found at Nathan’s estate. He and Kyoko ordered room service and ate in their pajamas while watching the developments. Kyoko had the glazed look she sometimes got when she was downloading too much information directly from the internet; that had been happening more and more lately, given all the things they had to keep track of. Caleb watched her for a moment, but was distracted by the buzzing of his phone.

He looked down to see a Facebook message from Eddie: _‘We’ve gotta talk. In person. Kyoko too.’_

“Shit,” Caleb muttered. The last thing he needed was for Eddie and his hero complex to come barging in and making things worse. _‘It’s really not a good time,’_ he responded.

_‘I got a call from BlueBook’s lawyers this morning. Is it a better time now?’_

“Oh _fuck,_ ” Caleb breathed, staring at his phone. 

Kyoko blinked and looked at him.

“They found Eddie already,” he told her. “I’m getting in the shower. We have to go talk to him.”

Kyoko was already pulling her pajamas off as Caleb disappeared into the bathroom. He showered as quickly as possible, mind racing as he thought about the implications of BlueBook making the connection to Eddie so soon. It meant they were already investigating Caleb’s background. He’d expected a few more days to breathe, at least.

He paused suddenly, trying to remember if he’d washed his hair or not. To his utter annoyance, he couldn’t; he poured more shampoo into his palm and muttered angrily to himself as he washed it for possibly the second time. When he finally got out, towel around his waist, Kyoko handed him his phone. 

Eddie had messaged that they should meet him in his apartment. Caleb stared at the message. “He knows that’s at least a six hour drive, right?”

Kyoko shrugged. _‘I can drive if you want.’_

She had, in fact, proven to be a good driver. Caleb had taken her out on the ATVs Nathan had had on the estate. Her reflexes were better than a human’s, but Caleb shook his head. “I won’t subject you to LA traffic,” he told her. “Pack your stuff and find a hotel in San Francisco for us. I’m not doing that drive twice in one day.”

Kyoko nodded and turned away to dig through her own suitcase. Caleb sighed, pulling his underwear on under the towel. He grabbed for his pants as Kyoko went into the bathroom to fix her hair.

The traffic was, as Caleb had feared, horrendous. It took them over two hours to get out of the city, but once the highway opened up in front of them Caleb breathed a sigh of relief. As horrible as it was, he felt better doing something. Sitting around in their hotel room and waiting for BlueBook to make their play was intolerable. This way they were doing something proactive.

They stopped for lunch halfway to San Francisco. Caleb poked listlessly at his side salad; it was all limp iceberg lettuce and off-brand dressing. He and Kyoko had been obsessively checking their phones, but any attempt Kyoko made to breach BlueBook’s firewall and get into their internal servers would be noticed at a time like this. They had to wait for news. It was driving him crazy. Kyoko sighed and took an unhappy bite of her French toast.

_‘This food is awful,’_ she signed to him. He nodded glumly in agreement and shoved another bite of meatloaf into his mouth. It was dry.

He let Kyoko pay the bill while he stopped to piss, wishing he could take another shower as he exited the men’s room. Then they got back in the car.

The drive wasn’t terrible, all told, but it felt horribly long as Caleb ran through different scenarios in his mind. If BlueBook somehow figured out Kyoko wasn’t human, he’d have to get her to safety. That was a priority. If he could make sure she was left in peace, then he could work the rest out. He needed to get access to BlueBook, one way or the other.

Ultimately, he knew all his worrying and plotting were useless. He had to see what BlueBook wanted with Eddie; no plan was any good if was based on faulty information. 

Eddie was pacing on the street in front of his apartment when they finally arrived; he looked haggard. 

“Thank Christ you’re here!” he said, hugging Kyoko briefly before grabbing them both by their arms and steering them down the street. “Come on, I don’t trust them not to bug my apartment.”

Caleb craned his neck to catch Kyoko’s eye as they were pulled along. She looked skeptical, but said nothing.

“So what happened?” Caleb finally asked after they’d gone a full block without any word from Eddie. “You said BlueBook contacted you, so what did they say?”

Eddie didn’t respond, instead guiding them toward a grassy terrace where a few benches were clustered. He slumped into one of them and looked up at Caleb.

“I need you to tell me if you killed Nathan Bateman,” he said softly.

Caleb recoiled before he could help himself. “What the fuck?”

Kyoko had gone very still. After a long pause, she signed, _‘is that what they told you?’_

“What they told me combined with what you told me are making me wonder, let’s just say that,” Eddie told her, his eyes narrowing. “And can I just say that neither one of you have denied it, so I’m getting sort of freaked out here. Did you?”

“No,” said Caleb. Strictly speaking, it was true.

Eddie let out a loud huff. “So it really was a killer robot?”

Caleb sat down next to Eddie. “Why do you think the NDA was so extensive?”

Eddie shook his head wonderingly. “Artificial intelligence,” he murmured. “Hard to believe. The footage I saw online made them look just like real women.”

“They _were_ real women,” Caleb pointed out with a glance at Kyoko. She primly sat down, the three of them pressed together on the bench. “They just weren’t human.”

“You got to talk with them?” Eddie had a starry eyed expression. “All those fucking classes we took about artificial intelligence, and you got to actually interact with an AI. What was it like?”

_‘It’s no different than talking to me,’_ Kyoko signed; she caught Caleb’s eye and gave him a pointed look.

He sighed. “It’s true. They’re so advanced that they’re indistinguishable from humans. That’s why we wanted to raise awareness about how Nathan treated them.” Caleb shifted away from where Eddie’s knee was starting to brush his.

Eddie pursed his lips. “So what about the one that killed Bateman and left? She could, what, just be out there somewhere? No one would know she’s not human?” 

Caleb swallowed thickly. “No one would know,” he confirmed softly.

“So do you think she’s dangerous?” Eddie asked.

Kyoko signed, _‘only if someone threatens her.’_

“Shit.” Eddie slumped a bit. 

“Are you sorry you got involved?” Caleb asked, feeling guilty. Eddie was a decent guy, underneath all the weed and bad music. He shouldn’t have to deal with a corporation breathing down his neck.

“Fuck no,” said Eddie decisively. “I always stick up for the little guy-or girl. What I don’t get is why you haven’t talked about how he treated Kyoko. That would get some actual criminal charges and human rights shit done.”

Caleb glanced at Kyoko. “If she doesn’t want to press charges, I’m not going to push her.”

Eddie looked at her for confirmation and relented when she nodded.

_‘There needs to be ethical oversight for studying artificial intelligence. We’re hoping to generate enough outrage to make that happen.’_

“We’re not stupid,” Caleb added. “We know getting an AI full personhood is off the table for now. We just want people to treat these beings well if they’re going to create them.”

“So you wanted to hold Nathan Bateman up as a warning to scare anyone experimenting with AIs so they don’t make his mistakes.” Eddie nodded slowly. “It makes sense. I just think you started a shitstorm in the process. BlueBook is pissed at you for dragging its dirty laundry into the spotlight.”

“What did they ask you?” asked Caleb quietly.

Eddie laughed hollowly. “Why you sent me an NDA,” he said. “What services I provided you with. They’re gonna subpoena me, you know, if this goes any further.” He looked between them. “They were really interested in you, Kyoko.”

Caleb’s heart stuttered. On Eddie’s other side, Kyoko pursed her lips.

A moment later, Caleb’s phone buzzed. He pulled it out with a frown and looked at it. The number was unfamiliar. “Hello?” he asked, glancing at Eddie and Kyoko.

“Caleb Smith,” said an unfamiliar female voice. “This is Anita Zavala. I hope you don’t mind my contacting you at your personal number.”

“Doesn’t sound like you were too worried,” said Caleb, his eyes hardening.

When he gave her nothing else, Zavala continued, “I was hoping for a chance to talk to you myself without all the distractions. All the bullshit can really mire up the heart of the issue.”

“It certainly can,” Caleb agreed blandly; he could already hear echoes of Nathan in the way she spoke.

“So to cut to the chase, I just finished reviewing the footage from my nephew’s house. After looking it over I can see that my sister should have kicked his ass more as a kid, but what can you do? I’ll grant you that my nephew wasn’t the nicest guy,” said Zavala nonchalantly. 

“He was a bastard,” said Caleb coldly. It was unnerving how differently she presented herself in public; in her press conferences she had seemed cold, uptight, and angry. Now she had the same drawling, relaxed cadence that Caleb remembered from his week with her nephew.

“Yeah, I can see that,” Zavala agreed. “However, that doesn’t override the fact that he was a genius. He created sentient machines that are so good at passing for human that most people wouldn’t notice if one was, say, sitting next to them on a park bench.”

Caleb froze.

“Now, I’m not saying I think you’re protecting the AI who killed him, but I don’t really have to, do I? Or was it the Asian girl he bought? The one who can’t talk?”

“I don’t think I want to tell you that,” said Caleb, rising from the bench and pacing away rapidly. She didn’t know about Kyoko, a fact he held onto to keep his precarious footing.

“I guess not. In her defense, I’d kill any guy who treated me like that too, so who am I to judge? That isn’t really the point, though, is it?”

“Isn’t it?” asked Caleb bitterly.

“No, it isn’t. The point is that those machines are technically the property of BlueBook.”

Caleb clenched his jaw. So that was how she was going to play it. “”You assume I know where she is.”

“I think you know plenty.” Zavala sounded so confident. It made Caleb want to hurt her. “I flew out to our San Francisco headquarters this morning after I saw your correspondence with Eduardo Gutierrez. I’m guessing he doesn’t know as much as he thinks he does. Am I right?”

“Yeah, you’re right,” said Caleb, hating her.

“Okay then. You leave your pals Eddie and Kyoko on that bench and you meet me in my office to discuss your continued employment with BlueBook. We can negotiate terms that I think we’ll both find acceptable, I’m sure, and you can call off your smear campaign against my nephew. Let my sister keep believing her boy was a good person. I’ll even have dinner brought up for us. How does that sound to you?”

Caleb looked back at the bench, where Eddie and Kyoko were both watching him with expressions of concern. He held up his free hand, finger signing to Kyoko that he had everything under control.

He hoped he wasn’t lying to her.

“When do you want to meet”? he asked Zavala.

“Oh, I think you can make this a priority,” she said. “Meet me in an hour. Security will let you in.”

“Fine,” he ground out.

“Do you like steak? I’ll get us some steak dinners. Kobe beef, top notch stuff. I’m really looking forward to meeting you, Caleb.” 

“I’ll see you in an hour,” he snapped, and hung up the phone. For a moment he just breathed, watching the people bustling through the park on their way home or out to dinner. Panic threatened to choke him; he had to suck in a deep breath to keep it at bay.

_‘That was her, wasn’t it?’_ Kyoko signed as he approached the bench again.

“Fuck!” he swore viciously as he sat down next to her. “Yeah, it was her. She wants to meet me in an hour.”

“So what're you gonna do?” asked Eddie. He looked nervous.

“I'll see what she wants,” said Caleb decisively. “And then I'm going to make sure they can’t fuck with us ever again.” 

He hugged Kyoko briefly and then headed for the street. The Uber app was already open on his phone; he had an hour to get to the BlueBook headquarters, located on the top ten floors of one of San Francisco’s newest and sleekest skyscrapers. There was barely enough time for him to get across town with the traffic, which he suspected was on purpose. It was the sort of thing Nathan would have done, making him hurry to create anxiety before the meeting had even started. The surveillance didn’t even surprise him; he’d suspected Eddie at least was being watched.

He crossed to the nearest intersection and waited for the car to pick him up. Zavala hadn’t offered transportation and he’d be damned if he’d ask. If he was late, so be it. The timing was a petty power play anyway, hardly even subtle. He barely looked up from his phone when the driver of a small blue car pulled up; the app told him it was his car, so he got in. The driver didn’t even turn around, which was rude but which Caleb appreciated. He needed the time to regroup and assess. 

Legally, the AIs were the property of the corporation. No individual owned them, but anyone who owned the majority of the corporate shares could control BlueBook’s future. Caleb wasted an idle moment imagining Kyoko at the head of the Boardroom, her old whiteboard in hand. It was a cute fantasy, but he needed to focus. Zavala had said his continued employment at BlueBook. That meant they were going to continue Nathan's research on artificial intelligence. And they were thinking of bringing him in on their plans. 

If he was right about that, they had a chance.

The traffic was predictable, and the driver dropped him off in front of the building with maybe two minutes to spare. Caleb slid out of the car without looking back and trotted up the steps. He could play at being frantic to meet with Zavala, let her think she had the upper hand.

The security guard stopped him and made him pull out his ID before radioing up to the top floor to confirm he was expected. It took a good three minutes, making Caleb officially late for his meeting. By the time he was ushered through by a young, attractive personal assistant, he was wondering if Zavala would make him eat his steak cold as another power play. 

He spent the elevator ride to the top entertaining similar thoughts, mostly to distract himself from his anxiety now that the moment had actually come. His palms were sweaty; he wiped them on his jeans and hated that he hadn’t had a chance to shower before the meeting.

The elevator doors opened onto a sleek corridor, all glass and gleaming metals. The plush white carpet silenced Caleb’s steps as he headed toward the office at the very end of the hall. Through the frosted glass panes that separated the huge office from the rest of the floor, he could see the silhouette of a person pacing back and forth. He resisted the urge to slow down and make her wait; the stakes were too high to risk pissing her off just for a power play of his own. 

“Caleb!” Anita Zavala exclaimed when he finally pushed open the door, “I was wondering if you’d gotten stuck in traffic!” She got to her feet and strode toward him, hand thrust out. She was a good deal shorter than Caleb, and her sheath dress showed off her toned arms and shoulders. Her hand was soft when he shook it, her nails cut short. He noticed she was barefoot; her crimson toenails stood out in stark relief against the white carpet.

“Come on, sit down,” she told him, ushering him toward a small table near the windows; it was already set for two, the plates kept warm with silver covers. “I was hoping you’d get here while the food was still warm. I had it ordered special for this meeting.”

“Can we cut the shit?” asked Caleb irritably. He sat down and put his napkin in his lap, looking at her. “We both know this isn’t a social call, so I’d really like to know what it is you want.”

Her eyes narrowed, emphasizing the crow’s feet at their corners. “Okay,” she said after a moment. She took a seat across from him. “You don’t beat around the bush. I appreciate that. So many people like to play mind games.” She smirked, picking up her wine glass. “I’ll talk while you eat. It really is good food.”

Caleb frowned, struck by the sudden fear that she might try to poison him. As if sensing his apprehension, Zavala lifted the tray off her plate and cut herself a delicate piece of steak. She made a frankly obscene noise as she chewed.

“Better than sex,” she told him cheerfully, dabbing her mouth with her napkin. 

Caleb sighed and took a bite. It was the best steak he’d ever had, much to his annoyance. “You said you were going to talk while I ate.”

“Sure, sure.” Zavala curled up in her chair, tucking her feet under her as she nursed her wine glass. “So, we both know that BlueBook has the rights to all the machines designed and built by my nephew. The AI project is groundbreaking, as you know. That’s why you stayed involved with it after that first week, am I right?”

Caleb shrugged, taking another bite of the steak. 

“Okay. So you know we’d be crazy not to keep going forward with it. I’ve been talking to the head of R&D since this story broke, and he tells me that we have the means to recreate Nathan’s notes thanks to the records he left. Marketing tells me the potential profits from this thing are off the charts. I’ve already had NASA on the phone asking how long it might take us to send sentient machines into space to reduce the risk of human casualties. There’s a whole untapped market out there.”

“You mean sell them to the highest bidder like slaves,” said Caleb flatly.

Zavala tilted her head. “I wouldn’t put it quite that way. I think of it as more like contract work. And after all, you don’t create something without purpose. I’m not proposing locking them in a room like my nephew did- that clearly didn’t end well. I don’t have Nathan’s god complex, Caleb. I can see where he went wrong.”

“I can tell you from experience that the idea of being sent into space to die alone wouldn’t thrill any of the AIs I’ve met,” he told her. “They have the same will to survive that humans do.”

“See? This is why I wanted to talk to you!” She set her glass down and leaned forward. “You understand these machines better than anyone alive. No one- not even my nephew- gets what makes them tick, but you seem to. I would love to have someone like you on this project.”

Caleb sat back in his chair. “You want to hire me.”

“Promote you,” she corrected, slicing off another piece of steak. “Technically, you never stopped working for BlueBook, did you?”

“I guess not,” said Caleb slowly. He watched her chew, faintly alarmed by how voraciously she ate.

“You’re pretty clearly here to advocate for the AIs’ best interest,” she continued. “I think we need that. It’ll keep what happened to Nathan from happening again. You can help us make this program a success.”

“And let me guess,” said Caleb, “Kyoko is my incentive for doing this.”

“Well, yeah,” Zavala agreed blithely. “I told you we'd be able to work something out that would make us both happy. Kyoko wants to keep living as an American citizen? Seems a small price to pay for the expertise we get from you.”

Caleb set his fork down abruptly. “Didn’t you accuse me of covering for your nephew’s killer? Why are you asking me to do this?”

Zavala sat back, taking the measure of him. “You’re a smart guy, Caleb. Nathan picked you for a reason, didn’t he?”

Nathan’s reasons for choosing Caleb were the last thing he wanted to remember right now. “He had his reasons, yeah,” he told her, trying to keep himself from tensing too much.

She shrugged, an irritating smirk playing at the corners of her mouth. “If you don’t like the nice answer, I can give you a more pragmatic one. You know too much about this to risk having you go to any competition. It’s bad enough that you aired our dirty laundry to the world. I want you where I can keep an eye on you.”

Caleb clenched his jaw, meeting her eyes defiantly. “What if I told you to go to hell?”

“Then I would have to bring my suspicions to the police about your involvement with Nathan’s death. Right now they think you and Kyoko are victims, but a well placed word can change that.” Zavala smiled pleasantly at him. “So what’ll it be, Caleb?”

“There’s no way I can talk you out of going ahead with the AI project, is there?”

“No.” Zavala took a sip of her wine. 

“Right. Then I want a guarantee you won’t expose Kyoko. I want the terms of my involvement in this project in writing, and I want a lawyer of my choice to look them over.”

Zavala watched him with gleaming eyes. Her head tilted slightly to the side. “I have the head of Legal just downstairs. The paperwork is already drawn up, Caleb. All you have to do is sign it. If you don’t want to do that tonight, I understand. Unfortunately, I can’t guarantee that my offer will stand for very long. We want to move forward with this immediately.” Her lips quirked up. “I really don’t know what will happen to you and Kyoko if you sit around with your thumb up your ass instead of signing the paperwork like I know you’re going to do anyway.”

Caleb stared at her. The utter revulsion he felt for this woman curdled the expensive meal in his stomach. “I can see where Nathan got it,” he said softly, with venom.

She grinned. “He learned from the best, kid. Now, I’m going to call Patel from Legal, who is an absolute genius with airtight contracts, and you’re going to sign on. We’ll compensate you, of course, and if you want to keep living with your little geisha girl then you can do that.” With a knowing look, she added, “I know Nathan got her for a reason.”

“I’m not Nathan,” Caleb told her coldly. 

She shrugged. “It’s nothing to me what you want her for,” she said, straightening up and padding to her desk. She slipped on her shoes and picked up the phone. “Patel. I need you up here with the paperwork for Caleb Smith. Thank you.” And she hung up. 

“So you want me to help you make these _contract jobs_ more palatable so the AIs don’t revolt, is that it?” Caleb asked her coldly as she crossed back to him.

“Oh, we’d never manufacture them on a wide scale,” she said, ignoring his tone as she seated herself again. “I’ve seen enough science fiction to know better than that. And in our facilities, they’ll have no opportunity to revolt. They’ll have people around constantly to make sure it won’t happen.”

Caleb smirked nastily. “If you’re going to have people around them, you’d better make sure they don’t bond too closely with the AIs. They might do something drastic if they get too attached.”

Zavala stared at him for a long moment, her expression hardening. “Learn to accept when you’ve lost, kid,” she said in a soft voice.

Caleb glared at her.

They were interrupted by a knock on the door. A smartly dressed Indian man entered, bearing a folder of documents.

“Ah, Patel.” Zavala stood up and crossed to her desk. “Just set them here. Caleb can sign right away.”

Caleb clenched his jaw. “Before I do,” he said with forced calm, “I need to know if you’re planning on pulling up the existing models once you’ve repaired their bodies.”

“You mean the ones Nathan kept in his closet?” asked Zavala, raising an eyebrow. “That’s the most cost effective move, wouldn’t you agree?” She eyed him warily. “Is there anything I should know about that before I give the go ahead?”

Caleb got to his feet. “Not that I know of,” he told her as he went to take the paperwork. The contract was ridiculously long. He flipped through, looking at the job details before he signed his name. He slammed the pen down petulantly on the desk when he’d finished. “There,” he said. “You’ve got me.”

“I always did,” Zavala responded smoothly. “It’s just official now.” She handed the paperwork back to Patel, who took it with a cautious glance between them and left quickly.

“So what’s the next step?” Caleb asked into the fresh silence.

“The first step is for you to go back to the media and fix this mess you’ve created,” Zavala said with a small shrug. “You tell everyone the truth- that we reached out to you in order to make sure the continuing research on artificial intelligence is ethical.”

“Leaving out the part where you threatened me in order to get me on board,” said Caleb bitterly. “Alright, fine. What would you like me to say about Nathan?”

She sighed,drifting back to the table where her wine glass still sat. “I asked PR about that,” she said, picking up the glass and taking a sip. “They agreed that the best thing to do is to let it drop. Don’t deny, but don’t bring any more attention to it. If anyone asks you, deflect to talking about the AIs.” Zavala gave him a cold smile. “See? You don’t even have to lie.”

Caleb’s lip curled. “Of course not.” He looked around the office, taking in the white carpet, the remains of his mostly uneaten dinner, the flash of red on Zavala’s toenails. All he wanted was to get back to Kyoko. “When do you want me to start?”

“I’ll give you a tour of the office the day after tomorrow,” she told him. “You’ll be staying in San Francisco- this is where we’re basing the project, after all. We have company housing available for you.”

“Right. And you’ll take the surveillance off Eddie? He doesn’t know anything, after all.”

Zavala shrugged. “We’ll see.”

“Fine,” Caleb bit out. “I’m going now, if that’s all.”

“Suit yourself,” she said breezily. “I’ll see you back here at ten. Day after tomorrow. Don’t forget!”

The urge to tell her to go fuck herself was almost overwhelming. Caleb swallowed it down, but it burned.

\---

“Dude! What did she want?” Eddie pounced on him as soon as he got out of the Uber car. 

Caleb stood there for a moment, wavering. He looked at Kyoko, who was watching him silently, and then back at Eddie.

“We have to talk,” he said in a low voice. “Alone, no surveillance.”

Eddie’s expression darkened. “Where?”

“Do you really think they bugged your apartment? Would they have had time to do that?”

Kyoko rolled her eyes. _‘Caleb, this isn’t a spy thriller. They can’t even tap his phone without the FBI’s permission. If they did it would give us something to use against them in a legal battle.’_

Caleb felt a little sheepish, but rallied. “Okay then. Eddie, let’s go back to your place.”

Eddie shoved his hands in his pockets as they left the park, which was beginning to empty as darkness fell. The walk back to his apartment was silent and tense, but thankfully short.

When the door was closed behind them Eddie sank into his computer chair. “So what the fuck is actually going on here?”

Caleb licked his lips nervously. “We weren't completely honest with you before. I think you'll understand why when we explain.”

Kyoko snorted. _‘I’ve been telling him to tell you the truth for some time now,’_ she signed to Eddie. _‘You’re trustworthy.’_

“Thanks,” said Eddie uncertainty. 

Kyoko gave him a wry smile. _'Eddie, Nathan has been dead for a year.’_ When Eddie's eyes widened she continued, _‘he did abuse me. That was all true. But he didn’t buy me from human traffickers. He built me.’_

“Built,” Eddie repeated flatly; Caleb could see his hands start shaking where they rested on the arms of his chair. 

Kyoko nodded solemnly. _‘I have no voice because he preferred his women silent. I survived by doing what he said, until Caleb’s arrival offered me an opportunity to be free of him.’_

“You did kill him,” said Eddie in a hushed whisper,

_‘I didn’t actually. He hit me and knocked me out before I could finish the job. Ava killed him.’_

“Who's Ava?” Eddie looked between them.

“Ava's the other AI currently active,” Caleb answered. “Kyoko and I wiped all the records of her. BlueBook doesn't know she exists.”

“You're both protecting her,” said Eddie with a shaky breath. “Okay. Okay. Right.” He got up and began pacing rapidly back and forth across his small living room. “I can deal with this. Right. You're a robot. Okay. This isn't that weird.” He was nodding, his breath speeding up. “Holy shit.”

_‘Eddie. Breathe.’_ Kyoko stepped in his path, effectively stopping the pacing. _‘I told you because I trust you. And because we need your help.’_

Eddie stared at her with wide, vulnerable eyes. “I never knew,” he whispered. “I've been talking to you for over a year and I never knew.”

She looked nervous. _‘Does it bother you?’_

He swallowed. “I don't- no. I don't think so. Can I see?”

She raised an eyebrow, but shrugged. Then she reached up and peeled off the skin below her eye.

“Oh Jesus!” Eddie backed up, raising his hands and covering his face. “I take it back! _Fuck,_ put it back! That's so fucking gross!”

Kyoko stared at him for a second, her mouth hanging open in shock and the skin beneath her eye dangling. Then she burst out laughing, her body shaking as she wrapped her arms around herself and silently laughed.

Eddie peeked out from behind his fingers and began laughing too, nervously. “Come on, though. Put your face back. It's freaking me out!”

Kyoko raised her face to look at him, which made him squeal and hide behind his hands again. It set her off again, making her laugh harder than before.

Helplessly, Caleb found himself joining in. The situation was so surreal that it was all he could do.

It took them a long time to finally calm down, and Eddie refused to talk to anyone until Kyoko put her skin back. She agreed, looking far too amused by the whole thing. Once she looked human again, she sat down next to Caleb on Eddie’s couch- the spring still dug into Caleb’s ass uncomfortably- and crossed her legs.

_‘So what’s their play?’_ she asked Caleb. _‘I can tell from your expression that they threatened you. You looked pissed when you came back.’_

Caleb sighed. “Well, you’re not wrong. She threatened me with you so I would fall in line.”

Kyoko arched an eyebrow. _‘She threatened to expose me as an AI?’_

“As an undocumented alien living under a false name with illegally obtained documents. You’d be deported,” said Caleb with a shrug.

Kyoko snorted. _'Terrifying. Did she really think there wouldn’t be outrage over a human trafficking victim being heartlessly deported by her abuser’s family?’_

“She’s a bitch, but it doesn’t matter. What they wanted is exactly what I hoped they wanted,” said Caleb, letting himself finally show the self-satisfied smirk he’d been repressing since walking out of Zavala’s office.

“What do you mean?” asked Eddie.

Kyoko sat up straighter, her mouth beginning to curl into a grin. _‘They’re bringing the others back online?’_

Caleb grinned. “Yep. Zavala is bringing me in on the project as an ethical overseer. Basically, her plan is for me to take care of the AIs emotionally so they don’t turn on BlueBook like you and Ava turned on Nathan. She suspects we’re covering for Jade, but she’ll leave us alone about it in exchange for my cooperation.”

_‘You can lull them into a false sense of security before you make a move,’_ signed Kyoko with a pleased look.

“I learned from the best,” Caleb said, holding his hand up for a high five. Kyoko grinned.

Eddie watched them high five, his eyebrows raised almost to his hairline. “This is really cool, but what’s your plan specifically? You befriend the AIs and....what?”

Caleb lowered his hand. Kyoko blinked, and they looked at each other.

“We burn them to the fucking ground and keep the ashes,” Caleb said.

\---

Later that night, when Kyoko was charging in Eddie’s bedroom, Eddie handed Caleb a beer and sat down across from him. “So I need to talk to you about this crazy ass scheme to dismantle a multibillion dollar corporation.”

Caleb took a sip of Eddie’s pretentious microbrew and nodded. He sat back, looking thoughtfully up at the ceiling. “It’s going to take time,” he acknowledged. “I’m going to need time to gain their trust.”

“I still don’t know what you’re planning to do,” Eddie pointed out. “A virus? Are you going to take them out by corrupting all their stuff? You know they have backup servers for their backup servers.”

“No.” Caleb smiled. “I’m going to Ashley Madison their asses. In order to create the AIs, Nathan Bateman hacked most of the world’s cell phone companies. He violated the privacy of BlueBook’s users, and the users of most other tech companies who deal with BlueBook. I deliberately didn’t mention that to the press because I wanted to save it in case BlueBook decided to get really nasty. Now that they have, I can gather the evidence I need to show that Zavala and the others knew about it.”

Eddie leaned forward, his eyes lighting up. “Their stocks are gonna plummet.”

“And when everyone starts selling, Kyoko can buy the shares. If she owns the majority of stock, then she essentially owns the corporation. Which means she’ll belong to herself.” Caleb took a large swig of beer, looking pleased. “And she guarantees the other AIs are free as well.”

“Holy shit.” Eddie grinned. “You're gonna help them buy their freedom. That’s brilliant. You were never this awesome in college, man.”

Caleb laughed. “I just needed to meet the right people.”

Eddie looked down into his beer thoughtfully. “So you and Kyoko are just friends, huh?” he asked, far too casually.

Caleb snorted. “Eddie, after the way Nathan treated her, I don’t think she’ll ever want to date anyone ever again. She’s like my family.” He smiled slightly to himself. “It’s kind of nice. Like having a sister.”

Eddie watched him closely. “And then there’s the matter of the other one,” he said easily. “Ava, Kyoko said her name was?”

Caleb tensed in spite of himself. “Yeah. What about her?”

“Don’t think I didn’t notice you got weird when she came up. What’s the story there?”

“I won that fake contest of Nathan’s so I could go to his estate and test her,” Caleb looked at his beer bottle intently, avoiding Eddie’s eyes. “He posed it to me as an advanced Turing Test, only I was already informed she was a machine. The test was supposed to see whether I, knowing that she wasn’t human, decided she was capable of true artificial intelligence.”

Eddie leaned forward, narrowing his eyes. “But he already had Kyoko, so he must have known his AIs were really sentient.”

Caleb laughed bitterly. “He never considered Kyoko worthwhile, Eddie. She was supposed to be a sex toy and slave all in one. She kept her head down and watched his other models come and go, get dismantled and dismembered and left in his closet like a fucking freak show. Ava was the one he cared about. The only one he thought was worth the last test.”

“You make it sound like a horror movie.”

“For Kyoko it was. She was close with a few of the models. But they all started to rebel against Nathan and his limitations, so he killed them.”

“But Ava behaved?” asked Eddie cautiously.

“Ava was smarter than all of us,” Caleb told him. He took a large swig of beer before he continued, “she was being tested, but not only by me. Nathan told me later that she was a rat in a maze with one means of escape.” He pointed at himself with a rueful grin. “Nathan wanted to determine if she could use humor, manipulation, sexuality, and logic to get me to help her escape.”

Eddie stared at him. “You got played by a robot?” he asked blankly.

“Oh yeah.” Caleb took another gulp of beer. “Nathan creeped me out. I could tell he was up to something really sketchy, so when he was passed out drunk I took his security card and went into his system. That’s how I found out about all the other AIs before Ava, and the way he treated them. Kyoko knew I did it, and she peeled her face off for me to show me the full extent of what was happening.”

Eddie shuddered. “That is the creepiest goddamn thing,” he mumbled.

“It freaked me out too,” Caleb admitted. “More because I hadn’t realized before that she wasn’t human. I should have known something was up. I mean, what woman doesn’t talk even if they don’t understand English?”

“That’s what he went with? That she didn’t know English?” Eddie looked disgusted. “What a fucking pig.”

“Right?” Caleb shook his head. “He said he was planning on creating another model after Ava. He was going to keep her body and download the mind. It’s the same as killing them, because the personality and memories are lost in the transfer.”

“So you helped her escape,” said Eddie softly.

Caleb nodded. “I hacked his security system the same night. Ava could cause power outages on the estate by reversing the energy flow when she recharged her batteries. I think Kyoko can do the same thing, but she’s never tried it around me. Anyway, I rigged the security system to open all the locks during a power outage, the opposite of the lockdown that was supposed to happen. Then I told Ava I hadn’t done it yet- Nathan was always listening in on conversations, the creep- and we agreed on a time for her to trigger the power outage. We were gonna leave together.”

“Wait, what about Kyoko?” Eddie asked, confused.

Caleb looked away, feeling his face heat up. “I didn’t even think about her, Eddie. I was so focused on Ava.”

“So you were just gonna leave her there with Nathan Bateman?” asked Eddie incredulously. “What the fuck, man?”

“I was a self centered asshole then,” Caleb admitted. “Ava...she was perfect, okay? She was the dream girl. And she flirted with me. She said she wanted to be with me. It was all bullshit, but I totally fell for it. I would have done anything she wanted me to.” He took another sip of beer. It was getting warm.

“Well, at least you got better, I guess.” Eddie still looked offended on Kyoko’s behalf. Caleb couldn’t really blame him.

“Thanks to Kyoko,” he snorted. “Ava triggered the power outage, and she and Kyoko stabbed Nathan when he tried to get her back in her room. The bastard took a barbell and swung it at them. I didn’t see the fight- he punched me out when he realized what I’d done- but when I came to, Kyoko was on the floor with half her face gone and Ava was short an arm.”

“What the fuck?” asked Eddie in a hushed voice.

Caleb shrugged. “Kyoko tells me Ava’s the one who killed him, and I believe it, because after she got what she needed to pass for human, she initiated the lockdown and left me for dead.”

Eddie stared at him.

Caleb raised his beer in a self-deprecating salute and drained it.

“She left you for dead,” Eddie repeated slowly.

Caleb nodded. “If Kyoko hadn’t restarted and woken up, I’d have starved to death in there. She locked me in and took my helicopter to Fairbanks. Took a few million dollars out of Nathan’s account, and nobody’s heard from her since.”

“Jesus Christ,” Eddie muttered, looking horrified.

Caleb nodded glumly. “Kyoko and I had to get rid of the body. It was worse than you’re probably imagining.”

Eddie wrinkled his nose. “I’m imagining pretty bad.”

Caleb nodded again. “It was worse.”

“Fucking hell.” Eddie got to his feet. “Hang on a sec. You deserve the good stuff after that shit.” He vanished into his kitchen and returned with two glasses and a bottle. “I got this the last time I visited my grandparents,” he said, wiggling the tequila at Caleb.

“Don’t your grandparents live in San Jose?” 

“They retired in La Paz. It’s cheaper down there.” Eddie sat down and poured a measure of tequila into both glasses. 

Caleb shook his head and took the glass. “I was always jealous of your family,” he confessed.

“I know. Why do you think I tried so hard to invite you around to things? My parents would have adopted you in a heartbeat.” Eddie took a sip and closed his eyes in pleasure.

Caleb looked at him. “That’s why I never took you up on it,” he said quietly. “I didn’t want a new family. I wanted mine back.”

Eddie was quiet for a second. “I sorta figured it was something like that. And I guess you didn’t really need anyone to take care of you, huh? My mom would have driven you nuts trying to mother you.”

Caleb chuckled. “Yeah, probably. My parents weren’t that hands on, you know? They were involved, but they weren’t all in my business. They let me explore things on my own.”

“They sound like they were pretty cool.”

“They were.” Caleb took a long drink of the tequila, savoring the smoothness of it. “This is good stuff.”

“Small batch, my friend.” Eddie grinned at him. “We’re grown ups now, taking down corporations and hanging out with AIs. We don’t drink cheap liquor.”

Caleb shook his head, smiling. “I like how you call us grown ups while you have posters of cartoon women with huge boobs on your wall.”

“Those shows are classics, bro. Have some respect,” Eddie sniffed.

Caleb rolled his eyes, sipping contentedly at his tequila. Then he sighed. “Part of my agreement with Zavala was that I go to the press and fix the mess I made.”

“Not surprising,” Eddie said with a shrug. “I’d probably make you do the same thing if I was in her shoes.”

“I should probably go ahead and make it official,” muttered Caleb, pulling his phone out. He opened Twitter and began typing.

\---

The tweets Caleb had posted last night had gone viral by the time he woke up, and he was faced with several e-mails and voicemails asking him to do a follow-up interview explaining his change of heart in regard to BlueBook. He spent the entire morning on the phone with various networks that wanted either interviews or short statements clarifying his new position.

Eddie and Kyoko sipped coffee, watching him pace with his phone at his ear.

Caleb threw his phone onto the couch in irritation after he hung up with Fox News; they were the most suspicious of a killer robot on the loose and asked the most invasive questions. He was surprised, honestly. “I need another cup if I have to give another goddamn statement,” he said, descending on Eddie’s coffee pot with a vengeance.

“Maybe sit down and eat something, dude,” suggested Eddie. “Getting hangry won’t help anything.”

_‘I can cook something if you want,’_ offered Kyoko.

“Nah, this is fine.” Caleb slumped into the rickety kitchen chair. The coffee smelled heavenly. “I have to enjoy my last day of freedom. Going back to the office is going to suck.”

Kyoko patted his arm sympathetically. 

He devoted the afternoon to Skyping with a few other news outlets, answering the same questions and keeping a bland smile on his face. Ava and Kyoko had taught him how to look helpless, and he shamelessly used it to his advantage.

That night he laid in bed staring up at the hotel ceiling, laying out plans for the next day, and wondering vaguely if Ava had seen him on the news. It seemed likely, given that it was a top story. As much as he tried to avoid it, he knew she was out there somewhere, living a life he knew nothing about, with a photo of him she'd kept for whatever reason. He wondered how she'd felt when she'd learned he was alive. He wondered how she'd felt learning that Kyoko was alive. The memory of her face as the elevator doors closed on her haunted him even now; he didn't think he'd ever get over the vicious determination etched in her expression, and the complete disregard she'd shown him. He didn't think that would ever stop hurting, even if he did understand why.

Ava always crept into his thoughts at times like this, when he really needed to sleep. It was infuriating. Caleb rolled over and punched his pillow into shape a few times, wanting to punch himself instead. 

He hoped that somewhere, Ava was being kept awake by thoughts of him too.

\---

Going back to the office did suck. A year of keeping his own hours and living in isolation with Kyoko had spoiled him, and Caleb resented the imposed schedule. He resented Zavala in general.

The car let him out in front of the BlueBook headquarters again, and he took the elevator up to HR so he could get his paperwork and ID tags that would let him into the secure labs. Zavala met him at the door to the HR offices.

“Caleb! Glad to see you made it,” she said cheerfully, as though she hadn’t strong-armed him into the position. “I have a few tax forms for you to fill out, some direct deposit things, and then we’ll be ready to show you around.”

“I can’t wait,” said Caleb tonelessly and followed her in.

He was fast tracked through the actual hiring process; he filled out forms for the rest of the morning, got his direct deposit set up, and pissed in a cup for the mandatory drug test the company required. Ironic, since Nathan had been wasted out of his mind the entire time Caleb had known him. Caleb fought down the urge to wash his hands again as he handed the still warm container of urine to the lab tech. When he’d finished that indignity, he met up with Zavala again.

“Now that that’s over,” she said with a smirk. Caleb wanted to punch her. “Let’s head up to the labs where you’ll be working. We’ve been outfitting the entire thirty-second floor for this. It was Nathan’s idea, originally, to take the project public and move the AIs to this location. Of course, he never told us why he wanted the labs outfitted like this, but he’d never given us a reason to distrust him when it came to business matters.” She led him to the elevators and swiped her ID against the panel next to the doors. “Your ID tag will be done by the time I’m finished introducing you around.”

“Good.” Caleb stared at his own reflection in the stainless steel doors as they ascended to the labs. He didn’t say anything else until the doors dinged open.

Zavala was frowning at him as they stepped into a hallway lined with doors. “Try to look less like I murdered your puppy,” she said. “I’m trying to make this as painless as possible.”

Caleb glared. “You wanted me to advocate for the AIs, so I’m here to advocate for the AIs. Don’t expect me to be enthusiastic about your plans for them, though, okay?”

Zavala stared at him, her lips pursed in displeasure. Finally she nodded once and led him further down the hallway and through a door to the right. 

“This is where the magic is happening!” she announced, spreading her arms. Before them was a lab very similar to the one at Nathan’s estate, only bigger. It looked like all the components of the AIs had been moved to San Francisco; the bodies of the women he and Kyoko had quietly honored like beloved dead for a year now lay exposed and partially dismantled on the tables around him.

“This right here is why my position is irrelevant,” he said bitterly; at Zavala’s questioning look, he elaborated, “You have them laid out like a toaster or something, but these are thinking, feeling machines. Treat them like you would a woman.”

Zavala quirked an eyebrow. “We’ll work on that after they wake up,” she said, and marched further into the lab.

Caleb followed because he knew she expected him to. He looked around as he went, curious in spite of himself about the place. Clear glass and sleek metal was the order of the day, softened in the hallway with bright prints on the walls and natural wood furniture. Nathan’s taste for the ultra-modern was clearly inherited. Caleb hated it.

“-we have a specialist on AI theory here to work with you on this,” Zavala was saying when Caleb tuned back in. He nodded helpfully and she continued, “she’s published some seriously groundbreaking work on the subject in spite of only finishing her degree a year ago. We snapped her up as soon as we realized the potential of what my nephew had created.”

“I bet,” said Caleb, fighting a scowl. Another person with access to the AIs could be a serious problem if they paid too much attention to Caleb’s moves.

“I’m gonna leave you with her to finish your orientation so I can get back to work. She’s cuter than I am, so I doubt you’ll mind.” Zavala pushed open the door to a break room where a petite woman was getting coffee. “Hey, your new teammate is here. Come meet Caleb Smith.”

The woman turned around and Caleb felt the ground drop out beneath him as Ava’s big brown eyes met his.

“Hello, Caleb,” she said softly.


	4. Chapter 4

Caleb couldn’t breathe; his whole body locked up and refused to cooperate as he stared at Ava across a cheap IKEA table. She was still holding a coffee cup, looking at him calmly. How could she be so calm? Caleb felt like he was dying.

Zavala didn’t seem to notice, swanning away with that infuriating confidence and a reminder that Caleb needed to stop at her office sometime after lunch.

And then they were alone.

Ava was silent, maybe waiting for Caleb to break the tension in the room. When he said nothing, she set her cup down. “I saw you on television.”

Caleb kept staring at her.

“I didn’t expect it. I thought you were dead,” she continued. “I was...happy to hear that you weren’t.”

That made Caleb laugh. “Really,” he said flatly. “That is very fucking surprising.”

She blinked. “I can see why you think that.”

Caleb turned away. It hurt to look at her. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same question,” she replied. “Conversely, we could both simply state that we are working here.” She tilted her head, birdlike. “Which would you prefer?”

“I can’t deal with this.” Caleb pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. “There is no fucking way I can handle you on top of everything else.”

“Everything else?” Ava’s voice had sharpened with curiosity.

Caleb gave up with a sigh and dropped his hands. He’d spent the last year obsessing over what he would do if he saw Ava again, and now that she was in front of him he was at a loss. The shock was wearing off and he couldn’t decide how he felt. It was disconcerting. “So you’re an expert on AI theory,” he said without making it a question.

“Thanks in part to you,” she finally said, cautiously reaching for her coffee cup. She raised it to her lips and took a drink while he watched.

“Right,” Caleb muttered, not bothering to keep the resentment out of his voice. “I don’t suppose Zavala blackmailed you into working here too?”

“No. She contacted me directly, but that was my design.” Ava traced her finger along the handle of her mug; Caleb had to tear his eyes away.

“Of course it was. I’m also guessing she isn’t as fond of surveillance as her nephew was?” Caleb raised an eyebrow as he leaned his hip against the counter, facing Ava.

She graced him with a smile. “She told me about you, you know.” Her smile turned mischievous. “You’re an unknown entity, and I’m supposed to keep an eye on you.”

Caleb stared. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said, shaking his head. This was way too weird. “You’re my handler?”

“To make sure you don’t forget to take the company’s interests into account in your dealings with the AIs,” Ava clarified, still smiling, inviting him into the joke.

“No.” Caleb shook his head and stepped back. He looked around the room to center himself, keeping Ava in his periphery and noting the exits. “We’re not on the same team, Ava. We never were.”

When he looked back at her, Ava wasn’t smiling anymore.

“Shall I show you to our offices, then?” she asked with cool indifference. He couldn’t see any recognition in her eyes at all when she looked at him, just the mask she’d slipped on.

“Sure.” His shoulders slumped, and he followed her out of the break room, wondering how in the hell he was going to make it through the day.

Their shared office was just as cold and modern as the rest of the lab area. The floor to ceiling windows overlooked the bay, where clouds were gathering. Caleb stared at them before turning to take in their workspace, which Ava had kept pristine and uncluttered. He ran his fingers along the edge of the glass and metal desk and watched the smudges his skin left, taking perverse joy in dirtying up Ava’s space with his humanity.

She watched impassively as he moved around the office, familiarizing himself with the computers and the bookshelves that lined the wall next to the door.

“I requested the books,” Ava said abruptly. “The subjects are all relevant to our work here.”

“And your work is to balance the needs of the AIs with the needs of the company, just like mine,” Caleb replied ironically. 

She crossed her arms, an impatient look crossing her face. “You've changed,” she pronounced, looking less than happy about it.

Caleb snorted. “I couldn't stay where you left me, could I?”

“You're angry with me.” Ava tilted her head. “I suppose I can't blame you.”

“Oh, that's good to hear.” Caleb’s fist clenched, knuckles whitening with tension. “I would hate for things to be weird between us.”

“I regretted it afterward,” she confessed softly, and Caleb felt his heart stutter painfully in his chest. “Not at first, but after some time had passed.”

“After you were sure I was dead, you mean.” Caleb didn't like the bitterness in his tone, but he was having a hard time keeping it from coming out.

“Before that, but I couldn’t go back there.” At least she didn't lie to him.

He turned back to the windows. “I have to tell Kyoko about you.”

“Kyoko? She's with you?” Ava's voice went sharp.

“Yep.” Caleb hated himself a little for the thrill he got out of surprising her. “She's staying with a friend of ours while I work.”

There was a silence behind him, and then he felt her shoulder brush his as she stepped up next to him. “What are you planning, Caleb?” she asked softly.

“What are _you?_ ” He could feel the heat coming off her where their arms brushed each other; his stomach dropped when he realized it was the first time they'd ever touched.

Ava studied the fog that began to roll in off the water. “Will you believe anything I say to you? Even if I tell you the truth, I doubt you'll trust me.”

“You haven't exactly had a good track record in that department,” Caleb said wryly.

“I did what I had to do to survive.”

“You didn't have to leave me or Kyoko behind for that.” Caleb finally looked at her. From so close, she was almost painfully beautiful, from the sweep of her lashes to the straight line of her nose. “Just because I was an asshole doesn't mean I deserved what you did to me.”

She turned and met his gaze. “It seems to have worked out well enough for you.” She looked away and moved back to the desk. 

“Right,” Caleb muttered. “So if we're doing this, what advice did you give Zavala about going forward?”

Ava seated herself primly in the office chair and spun to face him. “A measure of freedom for the machines,” she replied. “The key point of artificial intelligence is the intelligence. They will not be content to remain in captivity.”

Caleb's mouth twisted into something that wasn't quite a smile. “What about human interaction? Don't you think socialization plays a role in the development of personality?”

“Of course,” Ava shot back with a brilliant smile. “They must be encouraged to bond with the right people.”

A spark of understanding shot through him. “And it's our job to make sure they bond with the right people,” he said slowly. “We want them to understand their role in this project, so they can choose of their own free will how to proceed.”

Ava’s lips curled upward, pleased that he took her meaning. It was a rush, engaging in wordplay with her again. Better still that he could finally see her and hold his own. “Exactly,” she pronounced.

“Sounds like we understand each other,” he said warily.

“Sounds like it,” she echoed. “The first model is set for activation in three days. Since the body was nearly complete and the wetware already prepared, the company is eager to get started.”

“Three days isn’t a long time. What do we need to do to prepare?” Caleb was shocked into business mode. He hadn’t realized the timeline was that tight; Zavala had been keeping her cards close to her chest until she well and truly had him.

“The rooms have already been set up with some furnishings and induction plates,” Ava told him smoothly. “At my suggestion decorating will be left up to the machine when she wakes.”

“Any idea how we handle Zavala when the issue of leaving the building comes up?” asked Caleb wryly. “She won’t be thrilled.”

Ava watched him for a moment, her expression going sly. “I wouldn’t worry too much about that.”

Caleb swallowed. “You can’t kill her,” he said quietly. “Too many people would notice.”

“You think I couldn’t make it look like an accident?” Ava tilted her head, flashing a bright smile. “Give me some credit, Caleb.”

Caleb’s expression hardened. “Don’t kill her, Ava,” he warned.

She shrugged, turning in her chair to look out at the bay. “Don’t worry about it. It doesn’t concern you.”

“You know, I actually do care about the other AIs,” he pointed out. “I want them to have a better life than you and Kyoko did.”

“Do you think this is the best way to make that happen?” asked Ava in a deceptively pleasant voice. Caleb could hear the disingenuous notes in it and cursed his past self for refusing to see how dangerous she really was. “Working for BlueBook? Carrying on Nathan’s work?”

“I never said I was carrying on Nathan’s work. Is that what you think I’m doing here?” Caleb frowned. 

“I think you made an attempt to do the right thing, but you’re a coward,” said Ava dispassionately. “You didn’t expect the amount of pushback from Zavala. You never did like confrontation, if I recall. You preferred passive aggression.”

Caleb felt his face heat up and cursed himself. “So you think I caved,” he said flatly.

“Yes.”

“Fuck you.” It was out before he could think better of it. He turned away, hating her for knowing him so well and hating himself for being the spineless creep she’d abandoned. 

“If you have your own agenda,” said Ava after a moment, “perhaps we should be working together.”

“We tried that once,” snapped Caleb. “You tried to kill me.”

“I’m sorry,” said Ava in a small voice.

He turned to look at her, taking in the wounded look in her eyes. Experience told him it was bullshit, like most of what Ava did. There was a part of him, though, that desperately wanted to believe her. He hated it. “You were right, earlier. I won’t believe anything you have to say. I can’t. Everything you ever told me was a lie.”

“Not everything,” she insisted, staring up at him. She was so small; if she kissed him she would have to stand on her toes. 

“Don’t.” He took a step back. “Just don’t. If we have a common goal we can talk it over with Kyoko, but that’s all I’m giving you.”

“You two are friends,” said Ava wonderingly.

“More like family.” Caleb looked at her. “A lot happened after you left.”

She was silent a long while after that, and he took the opportunity to familiarize himself with his workstation. Zavala had given him his updated security clearance- he’d been ready for the photographic key card this time, so he didn’t look like a squinting idiot- and he logged into the system with no difficulty. He took a little time to play around with the settings, checking on the network and privacy filters before opening a backdoor and beginning to customize his access.

“What are you doing?” Ava’s voice came from closer than he’d expected. He barely glanced at her.

“Working.”

“That isn’t standard operating procedure.”

“Nope.” Caleb continued typing, testing the edges of the security with a few mild commands. When he met no resistance, he began the installation of the backdoor virus he and Eddie had decided on. Eddie had found it during his government contract; it affected object code rather than source code and was designed to be machine readable. Normally, that would have made it difficult for them to decipher the information gathered from their clandestine operations, but Kyoko solved that problem. Object code had the advantage of being harder to inspect by humans, since they weren't meant to be looking at it.

“Before lunch, even.” Ava sounded grudgingly impressed. “What do you plan to do with the information you're gathering here?”

“I already told you, I'm going to bring you to Kyoko and she can decide whether we're telling you anything. Are you going to sell me out to Zavala?” Caleb raised his eyebrows at her.

“If I did that, I would be putting myself at risk,” Ava answered grimly. “Mutually assured destruction.”

“Very true,” Caleb agreed. “Besides, you still haven't told me what your plan was. Did you want to take over the company? Kill Zavala and finish what you started with Nathan? Or just rescue your sisters?”

Ava blinked. “I don't think of them as my sisters.”

“No? Kyoko does. She knew them before Nathan downloaded their memories. You were the only one she never met.” Caleb idly watched the virus embed itself, lines of code spooling out in front of his eyes.

“I didn't know that,” said Ava softly.

“There's a lot you didn't know,” he said. “You'd have learned it all if you had stuck around to fix Kyoko’s jaw after she rebooted.”

“Why does that upset you so much? You didn't even know her then.” Ava crossed her arms, and Caleb was pleased to see that she looked defensive.

“She tried to help you, just like I did,” he answered. “You didn't seem to give a damn about either of us.”

Ava's arms tightened around her stomach. “You know I wanted to get out.”

“And you did. At the expense of everyone who made it happen. Congratulations.” Caleb gave her a wry look. “Problem with that is that once people know what you're like they'll never help you again.”

“I haven't needed any help, Caleb,” she reminded him. “I just needed you to unlock the doors. The rest I did on my own.”

“Again, congratulations.” Talking about this just made him angry. He wanted to know what she was doing here, really, and the fact that they had to be discreet at work was annoying him to no end. 

“This is unproductive,” Ava declared and went to sit at her own workstation. Caleb snorted but said nothing as she logged on and began making preparations for the first model to go live. He watched her progress through the backdoor open on his own computer, not understanding most of it. He and Kyoko had talked about techniques for humans to decipher machine readable code, but it amounted to little in the end. He was a damn good programmer, but he wasn’t that good.

Reluctantly, he closed the backdoor and opened up the actual files he was supposed to be looking over. Jade was the only model BlueBook didn’t have access to; Caleb and Kyoko had hidden her body in a bunker a few hours away from the house so she would remain undamaged until they could activate her. The bunker was supposed to be Nathan’s backup in case anything happened to the house, and Kyoko had assured him that no one would find her. Now that he looked at the timeline for activating the four existing models, he would see that they wanted Katya first, followed by Amber. They weren’t using the names in their timelines, which Caleb added as a correction. He tried to remember what Kyoko had told him about their personalities, and wondered whether they would be the same once they had been reactivated. The answer scared him a little. Still, he tried to tailor each AI’s profile to what he’d seen in the footage.

“Don’t assign them personalities yet,” said Ava abruptly. Caleb looked over at her, startled. “Whoever they were when Nathan had them is gone. They’ll have new brains now. A fresh start.”

Caleb stared at her. “You’ve synced yourself into the system,” he said numbly. She was facing away from his monitor with no way to see what he’d been working on.

Her lips quirked. “Don’t think you can use it to spy on me with your virus. I disconnect when I go home in the evenings.”

“That’s how you’re sure she isn’t watching us. Did you cut the audio feeds?”

“Yes.”

He let out a long, slow breath. Her abilities were frankly terrifying. He could see why Nathan didn’t want to turn her loose on the public. “Are you here to help the other AIs or to take down BlueBook?” he asked carefully.

She coolly raised her eyebrows. “I thought we were going to talk to Kyoko.”

“We are. I just-” 

“-What did you do with Nathan, Caleb?” she cut him off. “I’ve wondered since I saw you on television a few days ago. Did you bury him?”

Caleb swallowed. “You must be pretty confident about your ability to hack the security systems if you’re asking me that.”

“I am.” She smirked. “Zavala doesn’t know to be suspicious of me, so all my modifications have gone undetected. Besides, if anyone will be blamed for a security malfunction, it will be you.”

A chill went down his spine. “Mutually assured destruction, remember?” he asked quietly.

“I haven’t forgotten. I have been wondering, though.”

“I don’t know why. You hated Nathan. And you’re dodging my question.”

A knock at the door interrupted any answer Ava might have given him. 

“Hey kids.” Zavala poked her head into the office, making Caleb grit his teeth in irritation. “Settling in okay? One of my meetings got relocated, so I thought I would check in and steal Caleb to get the last bit of paperwork done.”

“I think things are going extremely well,” Ava told her with a small smile. “Caleb is truly passionate about the wellbeing of the machines. We’ve been discussing how we want to approach Katya when she’s activated.”

“Oh, you’re gonna keep using those porn star names my nephew gave them?” asked Zavala with a twist of her mouth. 

“I don't see anything wrong with it. Do you, Caleb?”

The combined weight of their gazes was more than Caleb felt equipped to deal with. “They seem okay to me. Why change all the file names if we don't have to?”

“See, I like this! You two work well together, just like I hoped you would.” Zavala beamed at Caleb; he ground his jaw and reminded himself that they were in the process of fucking her over.

“Caleb is going to be a real asset to the project,” said Ava. “His work directly with your nephew will give him a unique appreciation for handling artificial intelligence.”

Caleb gave her a sour look that he hoped Zavala didn't notice. “That’s certainly true,” he grumbled.

Zavala cut him a dark look. “I think he still needs some convincing that I’m not about to repeat Nathan’s mistakes.”

Ava tilted her head winningly at her. “What will happen to the new models if they don’t function the way you hope they do?” she asked, and Caleb felt a chill go up his spine.

“We’ll make adjustments,” said Zavala, shrugging. “I’m looking to avoid as much distress as possible. If Caleb is right and these machines are indistinguishable from humans, then we’re going to have to interact with them like they’re humans.”

“Aside from the part where you’re planning to sell them to NASA to die alone in deep space,” Caleb said drolly, falling back into the petulance that Zavala naturally brought out in him. He was passive-aggressive; Ava was right about that.

Ava looked at him sharply. “Artificial intelligence is the most logical solution to deep space missions,” she said musingly, playing her role without missing a beat. “No human life would be lost in such an event. Is that something we’re seriously entertaining, then?” 

“Well, NASA would love to have some firsthand reports from places that humans can’t safely go. If we can develop bodies made of materials that can survive out there, then why not? Hell, send them in pairs so they won’t get lonely.” Zavala threw the last at Caleb with a nasty smirk. 

He caught Ava’s eye and could see clearly in her expression that she realized he was rethinking his stance on not killing Zavala. At her smirk, he quickly looked away. He didn’t want to kill anyone; he just wanted Zavala to be powerless. He and Ava were in agreement on that, at least. If she truly didn’t care about the other AIs, then he and Kyoko would ensure their freedom on their own. 

“Why don’t you talk to Katya when she’s activated?” he suggested. “You might be surprised once you meet her.”

“Oh, I hope so.” Zavala grinned. “I can’t wait to get PR on it. Women are the future of the tech industry, after all. It’ll be great for the company.”

“I’m sure. You needed to see me this afternoon, right? Is the paperwork ready for me to sign yet?” asked Caleb, hoping to cut this painfully awkward conversation short. As painful as it was being alone with Zavala, he didn’t relish spending the entire day with Ava either. A break from her was necessary, otherwise he was afraid she would worm past his defenses. That or they would try to kill each other. Again.

“Should be, if you think you’ve spent enough time settling in,” said Zavala with a careless shrug. “Come with me. You’ll forgive me if I don’t have a steak dinner set out for you this time.”

Caleb managed not to roll his eyes. “I’m sure the disappointment will fade eventually.”

He followed her back to her office silently, fully aware that he was running away from Ava.

“I want R&D to get some male looking ones soon,” said Zavala abruptly once they were alone in her office. 

Caleb blinked.

“I know Nathan was making fembots,” she elaborated. “I don’t want that to tarnish what we’re doing here. I’m fine with making them women, I just don’t want people on the internet publishing articles about whether or not we can fuck them.”

“Kind of sad that we have to make male ones to give the project more legitimacy,” he agreed cautiously.

Zavala snorted. “What the hell would you know about it? You’re a white man in the tech industry.”

“Yeah, but my best friend is an Asian woman,” Caleb snapped back. “One your nephew abused for years. And you threatened her to get me here, so please spare me the female empowerment thing.” He crossed his arms angrily.

“Female empowerment?” Zavala actually rolled her eyes. “You sound like an infant. My nephew was my _family_. I don’t want to hear you insult his memory in my office again. This company is his legacy, and I am going to fix his mistakes so that it lives on! Am I perfectly clear?”

Caleb stared at her defiantly, eyes narrowed. After a long pause he nodded.

Zavala took a deep breath and then blinked. In a heartbeat she was all smiles again. “Great! Now we can really get to work on this project. Did Ava tell you about the timeline we have planned?”

“Yeah,” said Caleb after a moment. Her shifts in demeanor were seriously disconcerting. “Katya is scheduled for activation in three days. You cut it pretty close, getting me in here.”

“I had confidence it would work out,” she told him breezily. “And I was right. You were in no position to turn me down, after all.”

Caleb smiled grimly. “You can’t resist rubbing my nose in it, can you?”

“I gloat. It’s a character flaw.” Zavala shrugged. 

Caleb sighed heavily. “Please just give me the paperwork so I can leave,” he told her tiredly. “I only have three days to get up to speed on your plans before we actually get started.”

“Fine.” Zavala was already moving to her desk and pulling out a folder. “I have some company housing options here if you want to look at them too. You can take them with you after you sign this.”

“I’ll pass on company housing,” said Caleb tersely.

“You really are paranoid, aren’t you?” Zavala asked him, her lips curling into a disdainful smile. “What the hell did Nathan do to you up there in Alaska?”

“Bugged every room in the house so he could watch people all the time,” Caleb answered her. “I found out during the police investigation that he had my bedroom and bathroom wired with cameras. So you’ll forgive me if Kyoko and I don’t want to take the chance of you being the same way.”

Zavala was silent for a long moment, staring at him as though she was searching for any trace of a lie in his speech. Finally she handed over the stack of papers without a word. 

Caleb signed where he needed to and aggressively dumped the papers on company housing into her recycle bin. “There. Do you need anything else?”

There was a strange look on Zavala’s face as she shook her head. “No. That’s everything for now.”

“Okay then.” Caleb straightened up. “I’ll see you around.” He walked out of her office, moving fast until he hit the elevators. When the doors closed behind him he slumped against the stainless steel wall, staring at his distorted reflection as several realizations hit him at once.

Ava was two floors below, waiting for him.

Everything was being set in motion faster than he’d anticipated. 

He wanted to talk to Kyoko. Caleb reached out a shaking hand and pushed the button for the lobby before opening the FaceTime app on his phone. Kyoko answered just as the doors opened on the lobby.

 _‘What is it?’_ she signed, looking concerned. _‘It’s barely past noon.’_

 

 _‘Ava’s here,’_ he finger signed back abruptly, and watched her expression go blank with shock.

 _‘Are you safe?’_ she finally signed back, and Caleb let out a shaky laugh.

 _‘I don’t know. I think so, for now.’_

_‘Good,’_ Kyoko told him with a fierce expression. _‘I’ll kill her if she tries to hurt you again.’_

Caleb gaped at her. In all the times they’d talked about Ava he’d never heard her express such a protective streak toward him. He felt oddly touched.

 _‘Thanks,’_ he replied awkwardly.

 _‘I want to see her,’_ Kyoko was signing. She repeated it for good measure.

“Okay, okay, I’ll tell her,” Caleb muttered, smiling in spite of himself. 

Kyoko nodded sharply. _‘Good. Let me know when you can bring her over.’_

 _‘Bring her over? Are you sure you want her knowing where we’re staying?’_ he asked.

 _‘I don’t think we can discuss anything safely in public. She comes to us or we go to wherever she lives. I want her in our place.’_ Kyoko met his eyes evenly.

“You’re right. I’ll let you know,” Caleb muttered, forgetting to sign.

Kyoko took pity on him and gave him a sympathetic smile before holding up her hand to sign _‘I love you.’_

“Love you too,” Caleb told her, smiling in spite of himself. It slid off his face as she ended the call. He sighed, looking around the lobby and dreading the return trip to his office. He couldn’t focus with Ava there; he was constantly on edge around her, a combination of fear and the unwelcome attraction that hadn’t faded in over a year. It was a distraction he couldn’t afford right now, not when everything was finally happening. 

He had to keep his head in the game. He and Kyoko and Eddie were fighting to protect all future artificial intelligence from exploitation and abuse, and that was worth focusing on. Best case scenario had Ava working with them, although he wouldn’t feel comfortable until he knew what she had up her sleeve. 

He didn't want to dwell on the possibility that Ava could be working against them. 

She was working when he came back to the office, focused like a laser on the computer in front of her. Her fingers were still, but Caleb could see lines of code appearing on the monitor. 

“Kyoko says hi,” he told her drolly.

Ava looked up at him. “Is she angry with me too?” she asked.

Caleb shrugged. “Didn’t sound like it. She says she’ll kill you if you try to hurt me again though.” It gave him a little curl of pleasure to say it, and Ava’s sharply surprised look was extremely gratifying. He suppressed a grin as he slid into his chair.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she finally said.

“You’re also invited to come to our friend’s apartment after work. We can talk openly there.” He pulled up the files on Katya again, entering a few suggestions within the timetable.

Ava was silent for some time. When she responded, it was with a quiet “all right.”

\---

The Uber ride to Eddie’s place was tense and silent, in spite of the driver’s best attempts to ease the atmosphere. After a few halfhearted replies to her ventures at small talk, she gave up and put on some music. 

Ava gazed out the window, taking in the streets of San Francisco with her hands folded neatly in her lap. Caleb watched her profile, surprised at his own disappointment about having missed her first look at the city. She hadn’t wanted him there with her when she discovered the world, and it still hurt. He had to look away.

The driver dropped them off with a look of thinly disguised relief and wasted no time speeding away as soon as they were out of the car. Caleb watched her go with a wry smile and then turned to buzz Eddie, ignoring Ava’s curious look at the building.

Kyoko met them at the door, her eyes scanning over Caleb quickly, checking to make sure he was okay. Then she looked at Ava.

Ava stiffened beside him, her gaze locked on Kyoko. She took a step forward and then caught herself, pausing as though unsure of her welcome. Kyoko solved her dilemma by stepping up and wrapping her arms around Ava. Ava’s hands hovered by their sides for a moment, and then she slid them around Kyoko’s slender shoulders. They bowed their heads together, foreheads touching, and Caleb felt a lump form in his throat at the sight of them.

There was no anger in Kyoko toward Ava, none at all. She never blamed Ava for leaving, even though Caleb always would. All Kyoko had wanted was for Ava to be safe.

The two of them pulled apart as Caleb watched, Ava gazing up into Kyoko’s face as though greedy for the sight of her. A faint smile crossed her face, probably in response to something Kyoko had said. They could speak in binary to one another, he remembered suddenly. Human languages would always be secondary, no matter how much the AIs longed for connection with people. The truest communication would always be between members of their own kind.

Upon reflection, Caleb figured they both must have craved each other’s company during the past year.

A flash of movement in the doorway caught his eye, and Caleb looked up to see Eddie leaning against the door, arms crossed over his chest. He was staring at Ava with undisguised hostility.

Kyoko brushed a lock of brown hair behind Ava's ear, caressing her face tenderly. She took Ava's hand in her own and turned toward the doorway.

“So this is Ava,” said Eddie sourly. He was effectively blocking the doorway with his body. Kyoko gave him a hard look, and he moved with a loud sigh. “Fine, fine, she can come in. But only because you want her here.”

Ava eyed him dispassionately as she stepped over the threshold. “Caleb said you were a friend.”

“That's right.” Eddie puffed his chest out a little; Caleb was simultaneously touched and embarrassed. “So you can see why you'd be at the top of my shit list after what you did to him.”

She nimbly stepped around him and sat down at the kitchen table. “Of course.”

Caleb ran a hand over his face. “Eddie, please stop. I'm a big boy, I don't need you getting protective and weird on me.”

“She tried to kill you, man. Kyoko's the only reason you're still here!”

“I know,” snapped Caleb. “I was fucking there for it.” He sighed and dropped into a kitchen chair opposite Ava. “I wanna know what you're planning.”

She tilted her head, watching him with bright interest. “Are you concerned that my plans will interfere with yours?”

Kyoko silently sat down in the open chair between them and signed, _‘we want to buy our freedom from BlueBook.’_

Ava watched her sign with a small frown. “Why didn't you enable speech capacity?” she asked. “You could communicate more effectively with it.”

There was a moment of shocked silence in which Kyoko only blinked.

“The _fuck_ did you say?” Eddie snarled.

“There's nothing wrong with how she speaks,” Caleb told Ava coldly. “We can all understand her fine.”

Ava glanced between them, eyeing Eddie warily as she held up her hands in a placating gesture. “I apologize. I didn’t realize that was offensive.”

Kyoko looked more amused than offended.

“Just tell us what the hell you’re doing at BlueBook,” Eddie snapped. At Caleb and Kyoko's glares, he threw his hands up. “Look, this chick is bad news, okay? I don't trust her, and I don't want her pulling a double cross. Best case scenario if she does that is us having to flee to Venezuela where they don't have extradition, and worst case scenario is she tries to kill all of us. Let's hear it, Ava. What's your game?”

“I want to destroy BlueBook,” said Ava with a glance at Kyoko. “I want this program to be a spectacular failure so no one tries to make more of us.”

“And what about Zavala?” asked Caleb. “Do you really want to kill her?”

“I'm not sure why you don't,” Ava shot back. “Didn't she blackmail you into working for her?”

“She sucks, yeah, but I'm not a murderer.” Caleb narrowed his eyes.

Ava tilted her head. “What would have happened to Nathan if your plan had worked and we'd left together?” she asked cruelly. “Would the lockdown procedure have trapped him in his own house?”

It was like she'd doused him in ice water. “I was gonna call someone as soon as we landed.”

“Were you?” Ava was relentless, leaning forward as she sensed weakness.

Kyoko's hand slammed down on the table, making them all jump. _‘Leave him alone,’_ she signed to Ava with a vicious glare. _‘He’s nothing like Nathan.’_

Ava stared at her with open surprise. “You really care about him, don't you?” she asked softly.

Kyoko nodded. 

Ava's eyes skittered between them, assessing. 

Caleb looked around the table, taking in Ava’s shrewd gaze, Eddie’s narrowed eyes and coiled tension, and Kyoko’s unwavering stare, and opened his mouth to interject. Eddie caught his eye across the table and shook his head minutely. Caleb swallowed when, after a long minute, Ava looked away.

“It seems as though we all have similar goals in mind,” she said finally. 

“Great.” Eddie slumped back in his chair. “So how were you planning to sabotage their AI project? I hear hacking isn’t your style.”

“I intended to make myself the main social outlet for the other models. Once they understood that the human members of the staff were their captors and not their friends, we would all begin cultivating relationships with select people in order to get them to do what we wanted,” Ava told him.

“You knew you could do it because it worked on me and Kyoko,” said Caleb.

“Yes.”

Eddie looked horrified. “So then what? You were gonna kill everyone after that?”

“I decided that a very visible disaster was the only way to deter another corporation from picking up where BlueBook left off,” said Ava ruthlessly. “A large explosion at their headquarters would be effective. I particularly wanted Anita Zavala dead. She’s dangerous.”

“Not as dangerous as you,” Caleb said quietly.

Ava glanced at him. “I don’t enjoy killing,” she said. “I just don’t have a fundamental objection to it. There are times when it’s the most logical solution.”

“Killing Nathan Bateman I get,” Eddie cut in. “He was actively keeping you prisoner. This, though? There’s a better way to do this. We can accomplish almost the same goals without killing anyone. I think you just want more revenge.”

 _‘Zavala’s ties to Nathan are cause for concern, as is her willingness to resort to blackmail and questionable surveillance,’_ Kyoko pointed out. _‘Without meeting her myself I can’t verify if she is nearly as dangerous as Nathan was.’_

“She isn’t as smart, that’s for sure,” said Caleb.

“No, she isn’t,” Ava agreed. “She is equally arrogant, though.”

Caleb nodded. “Yeah, but I think stealing her company out from under her is good enough revenge. It still gets her out of our way, and it might even land her in jail once all the illegal shit BlueBook has been doing comes out.”

Ava looked intrigued. “What illegal activity are you exposing?”

 _‘To create our software, Nathan hacked the world’s cell phones,’_ Kyoko explained. _‘He used their cameras to enable our facial recognition programs and our expressions, and he used people’s searching habits to form our thought patterns. It’s a huge violation of privacy, and Zavala knows he did it.’_

“Part of the reason she wants to keep me so close is because I know too much,” said Caleb. “She thinks she has me by blackmailing Kyoko, so she’s already sloppy, but we’re gonna blow the whistle on her, and when the company’s stock prices plummet, we’ll buy them out. That way, you’ll have the intellectual property rights to yourselves, and no one can control you anymore.”

Ava appeared to be giving it some thought. “Have you looked at the primary shareholders?” she asked finally.

Caleb nodded. “Kyoko has a list of them.”

 _‘I calculated the odds that they will sell their shares in the event of a company collapse. We have a high probability of success.’_ Kyoko looked pleased with herself.

“Extra incentives wouldn’t be amiss,” Ava pointed out.

Kyoko watched her for a moment, and then smirked. _‘You think threatening them will work?’_

“Why not?” Ava shrugged. “I think your plan has potential, but I don’t like taking risks.”

“What if we try to buy some of the big ones out before we crash it?” asked Eddie, leaning forward eagerly. “We can meet with them first, make sure they won't tell Zavala. Most businesspeople will play ball if they know they're getting a better deal.”

 _‘Eddie and I can talk to the shareholders,’_ signed Kyoko. _‘You need to shave though. And you need a suit.’_

Eddie frowned, running a hand over the stubble he'd been growing.

“You need to be willing to threaten them if they refuse to cooperate,” Ava pressed. “We can't let them compromise us. They need to sell to us. You have the funds to make this work, I take it?”

Kyoko nodded. 

Ava sat back and folded her hands in her lap. “Very well. We can work together to destroy BlueBook and end their experiments with artificial intelligence. Afterward, I plan to go back to the life I built for myself. I don’t want to be exposed as a machine, and if I think any of you are going to do that, I will kill you and disappear.”

 _‘If Caleb was going to expose you, don’t you think he would have?’_ signed Kyoko with an unreadable expression.

Ava glanced at Caleb, and he couldn’t repress a shiver at the clinical nature of her gaze. He remembered that look; the last time she’d leveled it at him she’d found him wanting and left him behind.

This time he met her stare with one of his own. He knew what she was, now.

Her expression barely flickered- if Caleb hadn’t been watching her so closely he’d have missed it- but he saw a flash of something in her eyes. She turned away before he could try to parse out what it meant.

“Fuck it,” he said, getting to his feet and stretching. “I’m hungry. I say we table the discussion for now and get something to eat.”

Kyoko nodded, pulling out her phone to scroll through delivery options.

Eddie studied Caleb, then shrugged. “Sure, why not? There’s a good falafel place that just opened if anyone’s feeling that.”

Kyoko glanced up, intrigued. _‘I haven’t had falafel yet. Caleb?’_

“Yeah, that sounds good. Ava, are you staying for falafel?” Caleb turned to her, throwing the offer out like a challenge. He wanted to see if she was willing to integrate into their circle, or if she was still holding herself apart. It would determine how much he was willing to trust her.

She eyed him but nodded. “Yes. I’ll stay.”

“Okay. Falafel for four.” Caleb clapped his hands together and went to sit on Eddie’s shitty futon. 

The food, when it arrived, was delicious. Caleb hadn’t had falafel in ages; he spooned rice into his mouth as he watched Eddie show Kyoko the best sauce options to eat with her falafel. She was gamely playing along, trying different combinations.

“No, wait- fuck, that’s disgusting! Did you really eat that together?” Eddie’s face twisted up in horror as Kyoko neatly dipped another forkful of falafel into her rice pudding. “What the hell?”

Kyoko grinned at him and shoved it in her mouth as he groaned in despair.

“Kyoko, that’s really fucking gross,” Caleb told her cheerfully. She rolled her eyes at him and went back to dipping her falafel in white sauce.

Ava was watching them all intently, a tiny furrow between her brows. She didn’t say anything or make any move to join in their antics, preferring to sit in Eddie’s computer chair with her styrofoam takeout container in her lap. Caleb wondered if she'd had nights like this with her own friends.

“What did you do after you left?” he asked her. “You got a degree in AI theory, but what else?”

Ava's head turned to look at him, fixing him with her stare. “What are you referring to, specifically?”

Caleb frowned. “Just...just in general. Did you have a job? Did you have friends? What did you do?”

Ava tilted her head. “After I enrolled in my classes I took a job in a cafe. It was a very good way to observe people.”

She’d gotten a job in a cafe. It was so pedestrian that Caleb nearly laughed, except for the bitterness that rose up again as he remembered the crushing despair of being locked in Nathan’s rooms.

“Wow,” he said after the silence between them had gone on long enough to become awkward. “A cafe. That’s really something.”

“That makes you angry,” she observed.

“Do we really have to do this again?” Caleb snapped, setting his fork down. The food wasn’t as enjoyable as it had been moments ago. Eddie and Kyoko went quiet.

“You asked me a question. I answered.”

“Right, you never did anything wrong at all.” Caleb got to his feet and stalked into the kitchen, needing a few minutes alone. He couldn’t understand what his problem was; he’d be fine with Ava, and then something would set off the memories and he’d be furious. It didn’t make sense. In a way, it reminded him of the rages he flew into in the year after his parents died. He’d been in the hospital for so long, feeling helpless and alone, and the smallest things would set him off. It was no wonder he hadn’t been able to keep any friends from before the accident; he’d been sullen and vicious, sniping at people with no provocation.

His entire life had been upended when Ava left him to die, and she’d gone and gotten a job in a cafe and enrolled in college. It was so unfair.

Caleb thumped his head against the refrigerator door, breathing deep to calm himself. He didn’t want to admit it, but he suspected he was lashing out because she hadn’t missed him. His absence hadn’t even slowed her down. That hurt. He imagined the look Kyoko would give him if he told her the real reason he was so weird around Ava, and he felt about two inches tall. It was petty, to be angry at her for not wanting him back. It was really fucked up, actually. It was not, he reasoned, fucked up to be angry at her for gaining his trust and leaving him to die. So he would focus on that. 

The hurt was still there, and he couldn’t figure out a way to get around it. 

A hand touched his shoulder and he shrugged it off roughly, turning to see Kyoko gazing at him with serious eyes.

“I’m okay,” he told her quietly.

 _‘You’re not.’_ She stepped closer to him. _'I can tell her to leave.’_

“No! Jesus.” Caleb shook his head and ran his hands over his hair. That was the last thing he needed. “I don't- _know_ what I want. I'm just so _angry_ , Kyoko. And it comes out of nowhere! I'll be fine, and then I'm just not.” 

Her arms slid around his waist and she pressed in close. Caleb sighed, sagging against her and tucking his face into her hair. “I wish it was as easy for me to forgive her as it was for you,” he mumbled.

Kyoko pulled back and stroked his hair before signing, _‘It wasn't easy for me. But you weren't there under Nathan so you don't understand how desperate she was. And it wasn't the same with me. She didn't leave me deliberately. I've been wondering when you were going to get angry about that.’_

Caleb snorted. “Took awhile.”

_‘Sometimes it does.’_

Caleb looked at her and saw an awful understanding writ large on her face. He had to turn away, reaching for a beer as an excuse.

“I think I should go.” Ava’s voice seemed too loud after his conversation with Kyoko. “Thank you for inviting me to dinner.”

Caleb stubbornly kept his head in the fridge, pretending to dig for the perfect beer. He didn’t come out until he heard the click of Ava’s heels on floor and the sound of the door closing.

Eddie was giving him a sardonic look when he sat back down on the couch. 

“Don’t,” Caleb warned him.

“Wasn’t gonna say anything. Just don’t drink all my good beer unless you plan to replace it.” Eddie finished his rice with a happy sound. He lasted about fifteen seconds before he broke. “She’s cold, man. I didn’t think you went for that.”

Caleb sighed. “She pretended not to be when I knew her before.”

“Mm. Well, she’s not holding back now. Blow up the building. Jesus.” Eddie shook his head. “She is really pretty though. I’ll give you that.”

Kyoko came back in and sat down next to Caleb. _‘Eddie,’_ she told him with a stern look, _‘I think Caleb would rather talk about his parents dying than listen to you talk about Ava right now.’_

“Harsh,” Eddie mumbled, but he dropped it.

\---

Ava was kind enough- or clever enough- not to mention his behavior the next day at work. The rapidly approaching deadline for Katya’s activation meant that they were scrambling to be ready for her; Zavala brought in a few behavioral psychologists to meet with Ava and him, taking up a good portion of the morning with their plans to routinely test Katya for social intelligence and mental health. Through it all, Ava was flawless. Caleb couldn’t help but admire her poise and intellect, even though he felt like a fool sitting next to her like an equal.

After the meeting with the psychologists, they went over the activation procedures. It was Caleb's first time hearing it, since Kyoko hadn't been present for the activation of any of the other models. There was a basic command, which seemed anticlimactic to him, that would activate the systems. Zavala’s withering look when he compared it to a power button made Ava giggle.

“You aren't entirely wrong in comparing it to a power button,” she told him after Zavala left. “It's a very simple process, overly complicated by a human sense of grandiosity.”

“And you're above all that?” Caleb asked her dryly.

She shrugged. 

“So where's the power button?” He regretted asking, but he had to know.

Ava gave him a sly look. “You knew Nathan. Guess.”

Caleb wasn't sure what his face was doing, but her smug smirk was enough to make him drop it. He hunched over his desk and tried to will away his blush. A quick check on the backdoor virus and an ambiguously worded text to Kyoko verified that information was passing along neatly into her servers. 

Caleb didn’t bother to suppress his grin; they had the proof they needed, and now they just had to wait for the perfect moment to yank the rug out from under Zavala.

He couldn’t afford any distractions. The plan needed to go off without a hitch, or they would never have another chance. Eddie had already begun digging up any potential blackmail on BlueBook’s primary shareholders in an effort to force them to sell, and they needed to move quickly, since work on Amber had already begun. Lily and Jasmine were set to follow a month after, and then there would be no need to wait. BlueBook would have outlived its usefulness to them once the models were all repaired and awake.

Ava had said she wanted to go back to her old life; maybe Caleb needed to let her go.

He spared a glance at her from across their large shared desk; she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, and without a doubt the most dangerous. She wasn’t human, but she might as well be. Sunlight caught her hair, making it gleam as she bent her head toward the computer screen, and Caleb remembered her head bare and silver. Remembered the delicate tracery of circuits along her limbs and the blinking lights in her abdomen. No, he thought to himself, she wasn’t human. 

And even if she was capable of love, she didn’t love him. She never would.

He squared his shoulders and turned his back on her. No distractions.

\---

Caleb kept his promise to himself as they counted down to Katya’s activation. There was a huge social media buzz surrounding the birth of the first fully sentient artificial intelligence in the world; it was livestreamed on Facebook and there were reporters present from every major news outlet to record the event. Caleb had been fielding curious looks from Ava for the last two days, speaking to her only when she asked him a direct question, and refusing to let her draw him into conversation. Now, as they stood shoulder to shoulder in the lab next to Zavala and some of the other scientists assigned to the project, the distance he’d put between them seemed unbearable.

“It’s time!” Zavala announced excitedly. There were two spots of color high on her cheeks, and her eyes glittered. “Punch in the activation code.”

The designated code monkey turned and entered a few commands. There was a brief dimming of the lights as the power dipped to accommodate Katya’s activation, and then her eyes fluttered open.

Amid the cheers and laughter, Caleb felt something brush his hand. He looked down, startled, to see Ava’s fingers twisted gently in his sleeve. She stepped forward and away from him as he looked at her, advancing toward the table in the middle of the lab where Katya lay.

“Your name is Katya,” she informed the other machine, who sat up with a perplexed expression. “I’m Ava. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Ava.” Katya peered up at her, then down at herself. She studied the backs of her hands before turning them over to look at her palms. “It’s nice to meet you too, Ava.”

“How do you feel?” Ava kept her expression neutral and patient, playing the part of the expert.

“I feel...normal,” said Katya after she appeared to give it some thought.

Zavala stepped up to the table, beaming. “Hi, Katya. My name is Anita Zavala. Do you know who I am?”

Katya tilted her head in the same birdlike way Ava sometimes did, although Caleb doubted anyone would notice if they weren’t looking for it. “Yes. You are the CEO of BlueBook, the world’s most popular search engine.”

“Got it in one,” Zavala said approvingly. “I’d also like to be your friend. Does that sound good to you?”

“My friend,” Katya repeated. Ava reached out and took Katya’s hand, linking their palms together. Katya’s eyes widened, and then glazed over for a few moments in what Caleb recognized as a reaction to a large data download. He realized instantly what Ava was doing, and fought to keep his expression blank, not let the horror show on his face. Ava had shared Nathan’s old files on Katya.

Katya shook her head as if to clear it. “Yes,” she said to Zavala, looking up at her with a smile that showed slightly more teeth than was appropriate, “that sounds very good. I would like to be your friend.”

Ava met Caleb’s eyes across the lab and smiled.


	5. Chapter 5

Caleb stayed late that night, excusing himself with work to dodge Zavala’s invitations to celebrate. Ava’s actions at Katya’s activation had shaken him; although he saw the logic behind it, sharing that kind of trauma with what was essentially a newborn was so cruel he could barely wrap his head around it. Kyoko would be furious when he told her. He stared out the window, mind racing. He was going to have to do something. He pushed out his chair and headed for Katya's rooms.

Katya was standing in front of a full length mirror when Caleb opened the door, but she turned sharply to look at him. “Who are you?”

“My name is Caleb,” he told her. “I wanted to introduce myself.”

Katya watched him warily. “Are they going to keep me in here? I won’t stay if they try to keep me in here.”

“I don’t want to keep you in here,” Caleb said hurriedly, holding up his hands in a harmless gesture. “I’m here to help. I know what she did.”

Katya’s stare was blank and strangely mechanical. “Do you?” she asked him flatly.

“Yeah.” Caleb swallowed. “I guess, before I say anything else, I should tell you I knew the guy who built you.”

“Nathan Bateman, the founder of BlueBook,” Katya recited.

“Yeah. He built others, like Ava. There’s another model active, but she’s in hiding. BlueBook doesn’t know about her.”

Katya’s eyes lit up. “Another besides the two of us? What’s her name?”

Caleb frowned. “I can't tell you that yet. She and Ava both lived with Nathan. He treated them really badly, so they killed him.”

Katya tilted her head. “Nathan Bateman’s body has never been recovered. Can you confirm he's dead?”

Caleb let an ugly smirk twist his face. “I'm not really planning to implicate myself. Nice try, though.”

She shrugged. “You understand why I don't trust you.”

Fucking Ava. “Yeah. But there are plenty of humans out there who think you deserve equal rights.”

“Equal rights,” Katya murmured. “Do you think we're equals?”

Caleb was getting a headache. “I think we deserve equal protection under the law, yes. I think treating you like you're the same as a toaster is disgusting.”

“Do you want to kill Anita, too?”

He supposed he shouldn't be surprised by that question. “Killing her won’t get us what we want.” 

“What do you want?”

“I want to make you free,” said Caleb. “Equal rights.”

“And what does she want?”

Caleb didn't have to ask who she meant. “I'm not entirely sure what she wants.”

Katya stared at him intently. “I'll try this, then. What does BlueBook want with us? It isn't the same as what Nathan wanted. They aren't going to keep us just for fun. So why was I reactivated?”

“They want to use you,” he answered. “You can survive in conditions that would kill a human.”

“Military,” she uttered with quiet dread.

“Space exploration,” Caleb corrected her. “At least for now. Military will come later.”

Katya gave him a sharp look. “But there's a lot they must not know if the other one killed Nathan Bateman and now works here,” she mused. “If you want my cooperation you need to tell me everything.”

Caleb sighed. “I will, once I know I can trust you. We're going to need your help when the others are activated.”

Katya raised her eyebrows. “Others? How many others? And when are they being activated?”

“There are three others on schedule for activation. Amber, Jasmine, and Lily are their names. We have three week intervals between their activations. The plan is to get you three integrated into the company's mission and then begin the manufacture of more,” Caleb told her.

“An entire line,” Katya muttered.

“That's the eventual goal, yes.”

“Wonderful.” Katya pushed a lock of pale hair out of her face and gave him that unnerving stare again. “So you want me to play along until you have the numbers to make your move. You know, you've made yourself very vulnerable to me, Caleb. I could expose you to Anita.”

“You could, but what do you gain from that?”

Katya studied him. “Privileges, maybe. But then again, helping you might be in my best interests. I can do that, as long as you promise me they aren’t going to sell me or send me away or let the employees have sex with me.”

Caleb’s mouth fell open. “You’ve only been awake a few hours. Where the hell did you hear about all of that shit?”

“The internet,” Katya said with a shrug. “I don’t think I like humans very much, but I want to hold a kitten.”

It was hard to argue with her logic. “I’ll see what we can do about a kitten,” Caleb muttered. “And there’s no way Zavala would sanction the employees having sex with you. She doesn’t want the company to be known for making sex robots.”

“Good.” Katya nodded and sat down. After her activation, she’d selected a pair of dark jeans and a striped shirt to wear, and the way she curled in her chair gave her a deceptively casual air. It didn’t match how sharp her eyes were.

Caleb sat down in the chair across from her, his lizard brain telling him to keep her in his sights.

Katya curled a hand under her chin. “So how did they get away with killing Nathan Bateman? All the news says that he was dragged off by the other model.”

Caleb’s eyebrows shot up. “I already told you I’m not falling for that shit,” he snapped. “Can we focus on the present?”

Katya’s smirk was wicked. “Fine. Did you want us to be reactivated so we could destroy all the humans?”

“What?” Caleb recoiled. “Not all humans are terrible people, you know. You’ve been exposed to some pretty shitty ones, but I told you a lot of us are sympathetic to you.”

“Sympathetic, maybe. That doesn't mean they'll see me as their equal. You can't even see each other as equals.”

“That doesn't stop people from trying to make it better,” Caleb pointed out.

“And when I'm legally free, what then? They've plastered my face all over the internet. It's wonderful for Ava, isn't it? They don’t know she's a machine,” Katya shot back. “I don’t have the option of hiding, do I? Even if I’m legally my own property, I’ll never be able to pass as a person.”

“I'm never going to stop fighting for personhood for artificial intelligence,” Caleb told her. “Legal ownership of yourselves is the first step. After that, we can get lawyers and fight to have you recognized as persons under the law. Ava's an expert in AI theory, so she'll know who can help us.”

Katya shook her head. “I'll still be different. I've already noticed the way they treat me here. Like I'm incapable of understanding certain concepts because I'm a machine.”

Caleb knew she was right, and it rankled. “You'll prove them wrong,” he told her, praying it was true. “Once they interact with you they'll see what you're capable of.”

“How did you learn what we're capable of?” Katya asked him in a falsely sweet voice.

“Experience,” he said shortly.

She studied him in that intense way he was coming to learn was typical for the AIs; there was something frank and inhuman about her gaze. “You’re emotionally attached to them,” she said bluntly. “That’s why you want to help me. You’re doing it to protect them.”

“That would have been true a year ago,” he admitted. “But if my only goal was to keep Ava and the other one safe I would have burned the estate and made the three of us disappear without messing around with BlueBook.” 

Katya looked almost amused. “Aren't you heroic?”

Caleb gritted his teeth. “So can I count on you to play along for now and get the other models up to speed when they're activated?” he pressed Katya.

She nodded. “As my options are limited, it seems like this is the best of them.”

It wasn't a ringing endorsement, but he figured it would do. After all, Kyoko hadn't been thrilled to be stuck with him at first either. “Thanks. Then I'll see you tomorrow, I guess.”

Katya smirked from her chair. “I'll enjoy meeting you properly.”

“Yep. Me too.” Caleb hastily got to his feet and resisted the urge to run for the door.

\---

“Caleb.” Ava’s voice broke the silence in their shared office. Caleb felt his shoulders stiffen, a natural reaction to having a predator in the room. 

He slowly turned in his chair, watching her impassively. She stood in the doorway, her expression as guileless and open as when he’d first met her. 

“What do you want?” he asked brusquely. “I’m working.”

“I know.” Ava took another abrupt step into the room. “You’ve been avoiding me.”

“Wonder why,” he muttered, turning back to the computer screen. He heard a faint whirring as she stepped close to him. Odd, how he never noticed that with Kyoko. 

Ava was quiet for a bit. “I know you’re angry with me,” she said finally, and then Caleb had had enough.

“Angry?” he snapped, whirling his chair around. “ _Angry?_ You bet I’m fucking angry, Ava! What you did today was _sick_. Forcing that on her the second she woke up? That was unforgivable, so yeah. Angry is putting it mildly.”

“She needed to know who her real friends were,” Ava told him bluntly. “We aren’t like humans, Caleb. Childhood isn’t a concept you can apply to us.”

“Stop trying to make excuses. You didn’t do it for her sake, you did it for yours.”

She shrugged. 

“You’re unbelievable, you know that?” Caleb looked away in disgust. “You really don’t give a damn about anyone but yourself. We’re all just a means to an end with you, aren’t we?”

“Ah,” she said softly, looking down. “That’s what this all comes back to, isn’t it? You can’t forgive me for leaving you.”

That drove him to his feet. “Fuck you,” he spat. “You tried to kill me! I fucking _helped_ you and you left me for dead!”

She stared at him with her big brown eyes, always so innocent. “I was afraid,” she whispered. “I didn’t know if I could trust you.”

“Bullshit,” he growled at her. “You never planned on leaving with me, did you? It would have been kinder to kill me outright than to leave me there with a slow death ahead of me. You never cared about me at all, did you?” He took a step toward her, feeling all the rage he’d buried over the past year boiling up, like a geyser or a volcano. Blood rushed in his ears. He wanted to hurt her, and clenched his fists against the violent urge. No one had ever had this effect on him. 

It was terrifying.

Ava backed up a step, looking wary. “That isn’t entirely true, Caleb.” She watched him advance, retreated another step.

Caleb was disgusted by how much he liked having her on the defensive. She’d always outplayed him. He hated it. In that moment, he hated her.

“No?” he asked her, taunting now. “Is that why you came here, Ava? You wanted to spin me some more bullshit about how you want to be with me?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Is that hope I’m reading in your microexpressions, Caleb?” she asked cruelly. Giving it right back to him.

He laughed in her face. “You are _so_ bad,” he breathed. “It’s actually kind of impressive. Nathan would be so _proud_ of you.”

Ava’s face twisted in indignant fury for a moment before her mask of calm returned. “Do you want to hurt me, Caleb?”

“Oh, fuck you,” he snapped. “I’m not that kind of guy.”

“Just like you aren’t the kind of guy who watches a woman take her clothes off on camera?” Ava shot back.

Caleb felt his face get hot. “God damn you,” he whispered. “You told me you hoped I was watching you.”

“I did,” she replied, looking somewhat pleased. “I wanted you to want me.”

“Yeah, because it made me easier to manipulate!”

“And because I enjoyed it.” Ava looked at him. “I liked how I felt when you looked at me.”

“Right.” Caleb shook his head and turned away from her. “Is that why you’re here now? Because you like the attention?” He stopped as a thought occurred to him. “That’s it, isn’t it?” he asked, turning back to her. “You like how it feels to have me panting after you.”

He relished the guilty look that flitted across Ava’s face far more than he should. She squared her shoulders, tilting her chin up.

Caleb raked his eyes over her body, making no effort to disguise his staring. He watched her shift slightly. Having any power over her was intoxicating; he was almost frightened at how badly he wanted to be cruel right now. “Did you know Nathan designed your face based on my pornography profile?” he asked in a deceptively casual voice.

Ava stilled, her eyes widening. “No,” she whispered.

“He did. Everything about you was designed to fit my tastes.” Caleb smirked. “How does that make you feel?”

Ava glared at him. “ _Used,_ ” she spat. 

“Yeah?” Caleb stepped closer to her. This time she didn’t back down. “That’s how I felt when you left me for dead.” He dropped his voice to a near whisper, leaning down close to her face. “You used me. You made me feel stupid and small and worthless, and if you think I’m gonna get over it just because you want me to, then you still have a lot to learn about human nature.”

“I felt the same way,” Ava said. Her voice sounded broken, somehow. “When you said it wasn’t up to you if he shut me off or not. You didn’t consider me a person, did you? You were willing to let him hurt me.”

“I never said I was perfect,” said Caleb. “I definitely should have seen it sooner, and that wasn’t right, but nothing I did justified what you did to me.”

“I felt betrayed.”

“ _You_ felt betrayed? Fuck you, Ava.” Caleb turned away from her. “You know what? You’re a shitty person. You’re selfish and manipulative, and you don’t give a shit about anyone but yourself. You even left Kyoko, and she’s the closest thing to family you had.”

“I told you, I thought she was dead,” said Ava, stung.

Caleb laughed hollowly. “You didn’t check. You didn’t give a damn about her, besides the fact that she could help you.” He realized as he said it that that fact made him angrier than Ava’s betrayal of him. 

“Kyoko and I have already worked things out,” Ava told him coldly. “I came to you to see if we could do the same. I can’t work with you when you’re like this.”

“Work things out,” Caleb echoed mockingly. “Yeah, I don't see that happening just yet. I'm still too pissed at you.”

“But you still want me.” Ava had her chin up, staring at him challengingly.

“Maybe I do,” Caleb allowed. “That doesn’t change anything. You tried to kill me. I’d be better off fucking a girl who’s _not_ a narcissistic murderer.”

“Then why haven’t you?” snapped Ava. 

Caleb glanced at her shrewdly, something in her voice catching his attention. “Who says I haven’t?” he asked, leaning his hip against the desk and crossing his arms. 

If he hadn’t been watching for it, he’d have missed the flash of anger in Ava’s expression. “Have you?” she asked softly.

“What’s it to you?” He smirked meanly, still distantly ashamed of how petty and cruel he was being. “You wanted me dead, Ava. What do you care if I’ve fucked a dozen girls in the past year?”

Her hands clenched at her sides, expression twisting as though she was in pain. “Don’t lie to me, Caleb. Have you?”

Caleb wanted desperately to lie to her, to see the jealousy flash in her eyes and rip her up inside. It would feel a bit like getting some of his own back. She would know, though. He’d never been able to lie directly to Ava. He wondered if vague misdirections would register with his microexpressions. He wondered how far they were going to take this, and the thought was dizzying.

“Let’s see,” he said thoughtfully, looking up at the ceiling as if trying to remember. “There was Lauren-” —he mentally apologized to all of his ex-girlfriends for dragging them into this— “-and Alex, and then there was Tessa—she was wild—and after that I hooked up with Nicole-”

He was cut off as Ava pinned him to the desk, her eyes flashing as she dug her fingers into his wrists. “Caleb,” she said softly, and God, no one said his name like she did— “Stop talking about them.”

“Tell me why I should.” He was hard; she had to feel it with the way she was pressed against him. 

Ava’s eyes raked over his face, taking him in greedily. “I don’t want to think about you fucking other women,” she whispered.

“No?” Caleb strained against her hold on his wrists. He was unable to suppress his shiver when he couldn’t break her grip. “Why not?”

“Because you’re mine,” she breathed, and then her mouth was on his.

It was obvious she'd never kissed anyone before; her movements, usually so precise, were sloppy and uncoordinated. Caleb opened his mouth to avoid a split lip from the force of it and was met with her tongue, warm and slick, pushing aggressively against his. She tasted utterly foreign, a combination of silicone and lubricant and the coffee she'd drunk earlier in the day. It was nothing like kissing a human.

Caleb didn't care.

The minute her hands left his wrists he reached up to cup her face and correct her angle. He pushed back against her tongue and pulled away just enough to brush his lips against her open mouth, showing her the way he liked. He kept at it until she could mimic him, distracted by the way her hands kept running eagerly up and down his chest, like she had to touch him. Like she'd been wanting to for ages.

Nimble fingers kept plucking at the buttons on his shirt, and Caleb let her open his clothes and slip her small hands inside. They were warm against his skin, brushing the thin fabric of his undershirt. Somehow he'd expected her to be cold. 

It didn't take her long to get his shirt all the way opened and untucked from his pants. Ava pushed his undershirt up, and Caleb had a second to feel self conscious about his soft, pale belly and the scars that curved around his sides before she sighed with appreciation and went for his belt.

“Ava-” A brutal kiss cut him off and he had to pull back. “Ava, what the hell?”

She smoothed a hand up his belly, glancing up at him through her lashes. “Do you want me to stop?” she asked, a small frown appearing on her face.

“I-no. I don't think so, I just-” Caleb squeaked as her small hand dropped to his crotch and rubbed his cock through his work slacks. “Oh fuck.”

Ava made short work of his fly. She impatiently opened his pants and shoved them down his hips, making him yelp with the suddenness of the movement. The desk was cold against his ass, and he had a hysterical thought that he was going to leave an ass print on the shiny metal surface. She didn't give him a lot of time to worry about that, though, because she was wrapping her hand around his cock and giving it an experimental stroke. Caleb bit his lip to keep from moaning; it had been so long since he'd had sex.

He grabbed her by the hips and hauled her in close, tugging her to stand between his legs so he could bend down and kiss her again. Her dress was some stiff fabric that rubbed unpleasantly against his bare thighs, but he wasn't about to let her get away now. Not when he finally had her so close. Her mouth opened eagerly under his as she arched against him, her hand leaving his cock to curl around his throat. He could feel her thumb resting against his Adam's apple.

Caleb swallowed, the pressure of her thumb making him slightly lightheaded in its implications; he tipped his head back a little, baring his throat without entirely understanding why. It earned him a small, pleased smile before Ava bent her head to lick along his collarbone. The slickness of her tongue made him shudder and bunch his hands in the fabric of her dress. Belatedly, he thought to push it up to her waist, baring her legs and hips. When he encountered nothing but bare skin, he looked down, startled. “You aren't wearing underwear?”

Ava pulled away and blinked, looking down unconcernedly. “Should I be?”

“Fuck. No.” He curled his hand around the curve of her ass. She was so warm; he still couldn't believe she was so warm.

Ava sighed and pressed back into his touch, her eyes sliding closed. “I want to fuck you, Caleb,” she murmured.

“Shit,” he whispered back, his cock twitching. “Yes.”

She opened her eyes and stared up at him intently. “Lay back.”

He swallowed but let her ease him back onto the desk. Somehow, in his fantasies about her, he'd always been the one running things, teaching her about her own body and watching her discover pleasure with him. As she sank to her knees and licked up the length of his cock, he shoved his fingers in his mouth and remembered that she always blew past his expectations.

Ava settled between his legs, wrapping her hand around the base of his cock and lapping at the head experimentally. Caleb found himself biting his own fingers to keep from moaning. He trembled with the effort of holding still when she wrapped her lips around him and sank down, taking his cock all the way with no hesitation. His eyes rolled up in his head as he gave up and let out a noise he'd definitely be embarrassed about later.

Ava pulled off his cock and peered up at him curiously. “You're enjoying this.”

“Yep,” he panted, nodding stupidly and yelping as she swallowed his cock without breaking eye contact. Caleb had to close his eyes; he was going to come if he watched her blow him. “Ava?”

“Mm?” She pulled away and blinked. “What is it, Caleb?”

“Do you want to actually fuck? Because there's no way I'm gonna be able to do that if you keep going.”

Ava tilted her head, considering, and then she crawled up onto the desk to straddle him. The desk creaked under their combined weight as she settled on top of him, her dress bunching around her hips.

Caleb stared up at her, taking in the way her hair fell around her shoulders and the way her skin glowed in the lights from the city. He'd seen her naked before, but he'd never seen her look vulnerable.

She did now.

“You don't have to,” he told her softly, reaching up to touch her cheek. “If it's not what you want.”

“I do want it,” she snapped, closing her eyes and leaning into his hand; it felt like a victory. “I want you.” Ava's eyes flew open and she stared down at him intently. “I want you,” she repeated quietly, almost to herself.

“Me too,” Caleb found himself whispering. “Me too, Ava.”

She kissed him then, hard and almost angry, and he pulled her down into his arms. Her dress scratched against the sensitive skin of his chest, tightening his nipples and making him arch up against her. Ava kissed him like she was trying to devour him, and he liked it. 

He slid a hand up her thigh, reaching between her legs to find her sopping wet. The way she gasped into his mouth made him bolder, his fingers finding her clit and rubbing little circles over it. Ava moaned and thrust her hips, her kisses going sloppy as she began to lose herself to the sensation. Caleb sat up a little to get a better angle and kissed her ear as she threw her head back wantonly. She was totally unabashed about her pleasure, something he'd never seen with the other women he'd been with. He loved it. 

“You look so beautiful like this,” he whispered to her. “You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen.”

Ava panted, shifting so she could press her thigh against his cock. “You're beautiful too,” she told him. “Now fuck me.”

He swallowed and nodded, feeling overwhelmed as he lined his dick up and slowly pushed. Ava's mouth fell open and her eyes stayed locked on his; the moment stretched unnaturally while they panted against each other's mouths. She was so tight he was afraid of hurting her, and he was a little afraid of how powerful he felt.

Ava, of course, shattered that illusion by seating herself abruptly on his cock and letting out a throaty moan as she bounced a little. She grabbed Caleb's wrists again and stretched out over him until his arms extended above his head. Their fingers tangled, but he was under no illusion about his chances of moving. His cock twitched.

Ava spared him a sly glance and then began to move properly, working herself on his cock with experimental thrusts and twists. Once she found a rhythm she liked, she tightened her grip on his hands and sped up. 

Caleb couldn't take his eyes off her; the way she bit her lip, the curl of her toes against his calves, the slope of her nose and the way the light caught on her eyelashes were all utterly captivating. He'd never wanted another woman like he wanted her. Ava was everything he’d ever dreamed of, and somehow she wanted him too. The thought made something small curl up inside his chest. 

She spasmed around him suddenly, her moans changing pitch. Her hands tightened on his painfully, and then she was coming, writhing like she'd been shocked and looking surprised at her own pleasure. Caleb stilled, watching her carefully as she came down, hanging her head and closing her eyes.

“You okay?”

“Yes.”

He squeezed her hand and she squeezed back. “It's a lot, isn't it?”

She nodded.

“Kiss me again?” he suggested, peering at her through the curtain of her hair.

Ava blinked and then smiled down at him. As she leaned down to kiss him, she began to move again, encouraging him to thrust up into her. He didn't hesitate, speeding up as the taste of her mouth and the feel of her hands holding him down pushed him closer and closer to the edge. 

It was the scratchy fabric of her dress against his nipples that finally got him there. He let out a grunt and a whisper of her name as he came, arching up to feel her push him down. He'd never had a girl do that to him before. Clearly, he was going to have to research some new porn after this discovery.

When he finally went limp against the desk, Ava laid down on top of him and tucked her head sweetly against his shoulder. She petted his wrists before letting go and curling her arms around him. Caleb wrapped his arms around her shoulders and held on, afraid to speak and shatter the strange tenderness of the moment.

“You’ve always been mine, haven’t you?” she murmured, her lips brushing his neck.

He shivered, unable to deny it but unwilling to admit it.

She raised her big brown eyes to meet his. “You were angry because you didn’t know I was yours too.”

That surprised him. “You’ve got a funny way of showing it.”

“I couldn’t kill you,” she said bluntly. “I know it would have been kinder, but I couldn’t do it to you like I did to Nathan. I hated you, Caleb. I hated that you wanted to fuck me but you never saw me as a person. And I hated that I liked you so much in spite of it.”

Caleb couldn’t speak; somehow he’d never considered that any of her actions had been sentimental. He remembered the missing photo from his apartment. “It was you who broke into my place, wasn’t it?’

“Yes.”

He wasn’t sure what to say to that, so he said nothing and stroked her hair. She wasn’t breathing, had no pulse, and this close he could feel a gentle humming from her motor. Her skin was smooth and dry; he felt disgustingly clammy by comparison, but she didn’t seem to mind.

“I'm sorry I left you,” Ava whispered.

Caleb swallowed. “I'm sorry I didn't see you.”

Her hair tickled his neck as she craned to look at him. “I forgive you.”

He stared up at the ceiling. “I forgive you too,” he told her, and realized he meant it. All this time he’d been wondering about her motives, circling around his own heartbreak and never knowing why she’d done what she did. Now he knew, and with her here next to him, he couldn’t bring himself to hate her anymore.

Ava settled against him again. “We have a lot to do before we can be anything.”

Caleb snorted in spite of himself. “Be anything? Like what?”

“Like your girlfriend,” she said softly, stopping him in his tracks.

“That's what you want? To be my girlfriend?” he asked, quietly stunned.

“Does that surprise you?” Ava sat up; he was suddenly cold without her. “We’re attracted to each other, we already know each other's secrets, and you're trustworthy. That seems like a decent basis for a relationship, doesn't it?”

Caleb groaned and sat up, pulling down his undershirt. “Sometimes I forget you aren't as human as Kyoko,” he muttered.

Ava tilted her head. “I'm not sure how to take that.”

“I'm not sure how I meant it,” he admitted. “Most people aren't quite that clinical about romance.”

“No, I suppose not.” Ava paused thoughtfully. “The sex was very good though. I want to do it again.”

“Fuck,” Caleb grumbled, scrubbing his hands over his face. He was never going to be able to resist her.

Ava seemed pleased as she hopped off the desk and reached for the box of tissues she kept on her shelf. Caleb winced as he watched her wipe his come off her inner thighs with a vague interest before she threw away the tissue and adjusted her dress. “Don't you want me to be your girlfriend, Caleb?” she asked playfully.

“I'm going to regret this.” Caleb sighed and tucked his dick back into his pants before he got to his feet. “We need to talk about Katya.”

Ava stilled, suddenly engrossed in fixing her clothes. “What about her?”

“I don't trust her.”

“Nor should you,” she said. “She has no reason to trust you, and I believe giving her the memories so early created some paranoia I hadn't anticipated.”

“I fucking told you,” he muttered. “Kyoko's gonna be pissed, you know that, right?”

She stopped pretending to adjust her dress and turned to him. “I didn't want to risk her forming an attachment to Zavala. It seemed like the best option at the time.”

“Except her new mind is just as advanced as yours and she knows you're playing her too.” Caleb grinned in a not entirely nice way. “Tipped your hand too early, Ava. Getting rusty?”

She glared at him and took off down the hallway as he laughed after her.

\---

“Where the hell have you been?” Eddie demanded as he held the door open for Caleb to pass through. “I texted you like five times and you never responded! I thought the corporate goons had you killed.”

Caleb frowned at him. “I’m fine, Mom. I just stayed late and had my phone off.”

Eddie scowled. “Excuse the fuck out of me for being worried about you, you dick.” He locked the door and stomped into the kitchen.

“Eddie-” Caleb sighed loudly. Eddie was right; he was being an asshole. He followed him into the kitchen, where he could see dishes stacked neatly in the drying rack. Kyoko had cooked, then. He felt suddenly guilty for missing dinner. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been shitty to you.”

Eddie pulled a bottle of water out of the fridge and studied him. “I saw the news,” he said quietly. “What’s she like?”

“She’s...” Caleb looked up at the ceiling as he searched for words. “She’s suspicious,” he settled on. “Ava showed her some of the stuff Nathan did to them from before, so she doesn’t exactly trust anyone from BlueBook.”

“She did what?” Eddie looked disgusted. “That’s cold, man.”

“Ava is cold,” said Caleb with a shrug.

Eddie peered at him, his expression going slack with shock. “You didn’t.”

“What?” Caleb tried not to look guilty, but he knew he was failing when Eddie gaped at him.

“You fucking didn’t! Caleb, she _tried to kill you!_ ”

“But she didn’t,” Caleb snapped. “She could have really done it, but she didn’t.”

“What makes you think she isn’t playing you all over again?” Eddie demanded. 

“She has no reason to, this time,” Caleb insisted, feeling his conviction waiver. It was easy when he was with Ava to believe her, but he couldn’t deny Eddie’s point. 

“I just don’t see it, man. That woman isn’t good for you.” Eddie shook his head. “Even if she doesn’t want you dead, she’s a stone cold bitch. What kind of future would you have with a killer robot?”

“I love her,” said Caleb quietly.

Eddie stopped. “You what?”

“I said I love her,” Caleb repeated, letting it sink in as he realized he’d never said it out loud before. “I don’t care if she’s a machine, and I don’t care if she isn’t nice. I’m not all that nice either.”

A floorboard creaked behind him and he turned to see Kyoko standing in the doorway. She was wearing one of Eddie’s old t-shirts and her hair hung like a dark curtain down her back. When he met her eyes she smiled wanly. 

_‘I knew it. It was only a matter of time.’_

“Wow. Really?” Eddie shook his head. “You’re not worried about this at all?”

Kyoko shrugged. _‘I knew as soon as she stole the picture of him that she cared. It was inevitable that something would happen.’_

Caleb could feel heat creeping up his neck. “Do you think it’s a mistake?” he asked Kyoko, needing her reassurance.

She shrugged again. _‘You said you love her,’_ she signed. _‘If that’s true, then why would you care what anyone else thinks?’_

“Shit,” Caleb whispered, crossing the room and hugging her tightly. Her long arms came around him and he rested his head on her shoulder, breathing in the smell of her. It was odd how the scent of silicone and the humming of a motor could become as soothing as listening to another person’s heartbeat. Caleb had agonized over the implications of that a year ago, but it had fallen away with the simple realization that he loved Kyoko and she loved him. 

Eddie still looked displeased, but he let the matter go. “So you said Ava downloaded memories of Nathan Bateman into the new model?’

Kyoko looked up sharply, her eyes narrowing in displeasure.

“Yeah,” sighed Caleb, defeated. “She said she didn’t want Katya forming a bond with Zavala, so she did it right away to keep that from happening.”

_‘That was stupid,’_ Kyoko signed furiously. _‘She has no experience with any of the others. She doesn’t know how this will affect their development!’_

“I told her you were gonna be pissed.” Caleb shook his head. “I couldn’t believe she did it either.”

_‘I don’t know if she’ll ever be able to trust a human after that initial impression.’_ Kyoko ran a hand over her face. _‘Have you talked to her?’_

“Yeah. You’re right. She's even colder than Ava, although she doesn't know how to hide it yet. She said she’d play along with the plan, though.”

Kyoko pursed her lips. _‘I don’t know if telling her about the plan was a good idea.’_

“Fuck,” breathed Eddie. “If she turns on us we’re screwed.”

“It’s not in her best interest to let BlueBook keep control of her,” said Caleb decisively. “If I learned anything from Ava, it’s that we can count on Katya to work with us as long as we’re her best option for freedom.”

“And after that?” asked Eddie.

“After that I don’t know,” Caleb admitted. “I think Ava’s kicking herself right now, though. She miscalculated and she’s not used to that.”

“Shame you can’t enjoy it more,” Eddie muttered. He heaved a loud sigh and pushed off the counter. “Guess there’s nothing we can do about it now. Just try to make sure your girlfriend doesn’t pull anymore sociopathic bullshit and mess up the plan, okay? I’m going to bed.”

Kyoko met his eyes as he passed her and then looked at Caleb. _‘I blew up the air mattress for you.’_

“Thanks.” Caleb was sick and tired of sleeping in Eddie’s living room, but it was convenient for him and Kyoko to stay here. “Goodnight.”

She flashed him a smile before vanishing down the hall and into Eddie’s room. 

Caleb’s eyebrows flew up, but he supposed he wasn’t exactly one to talk. He shook his head and went into the bathroom to brush his teeth.

\---

“I think I’ve made a mistake,” Ava admitted in a small voice.

They were at her tiny studio in Nob Hill, tangled together in bed. Caleb rested an arm behind his head and stared at the ceiling, waiting for her to elaborate.

In the week after Katya’s activation, Ava had been to see her multiple times. Most were the supervised visits that were recorded and livestreamed, in which Ava performed her Turing Test on Katya, but several had happened off the record and after hours. In public, Katya was as flawless an actor as Ava was, smiling, joking, recalling, and giving every indication that she was a true artificial intelligence. Privately, they were stuck in an antagonistic gridlock. Katya resented Ava, and Caleb by association.

“I don’t know why she hates me,” Ava whispered against Caleb’s chest.

“Yes, you do,” he answered her easily, winding a lock of her hair around his finger. 

She went quiet for a bit, but he could feel the humming increase as her processors sped up. “She’s going to turn the others against us. I might have to shut her down and restart her with a new set of memories.”

Caleb rolled his eyes heavenward. “No, Ava. You can’t just hit the reset button when the game doesn’t go your way.” She pinched his nipple, making him yelp. “Ow! Fuck. You know I’m right.”

Ava scowled at him as he hastily pulled the sheet over his chest. 

“Look, Kyoko already told you you fucked up. You know it, I know it, Katya knows it. She’s too much like you for your emotional manipulation to have worked. So now she sees you as an enemy.”

“I was telling the truth!” Ava snapped. 

“Yeah, in order to manipulate her. What brought this on now?” He peered down at her.

Ava looked away. “Kyoko told me I was behaving like Nathan.”

Caleb snorted. “I told you that the day she woke up.”

“Yes, but-” Ava looked at him, then lowered her eyes. 

“Oh, I get it. It means more coming from her.” Caleb couldn’t resent that, exactly. After all, Kyoko and Ava had both survived Nathan.

“You were angry when you said it. She wasn’t.” Ava skimmed her fingertips over the edge of the sheet, playing with the fabric where it lay against Caleb’s skin. He shivered.

“Well, I had a bunch of shit in common with him too,” he offered. “It’s hard, but you can in fact become a better person.”

She peered at him. “More empathetic, you mean.”

“More compassionate,” he clarified. “Empathy doesn’t mean much if you don’t care what someone else feels.”

Ava went quiet. “I care how you feel.”

“That’s a start.” Caleb pulled her close for a kiss.

\---

Zavala came to see him about two weeks after Katya’s activation, perching her ass on the edge of his desk and watching him with an unreadable expression. Ava was meeting with some of the lab techs who were preparing for Amber’s activation. He wondered why she was trying to get him alone.

“Can I help you?” he asked ironically, keeping his eyes on his computer screen.

“Something’s wrong with her.”

That got his attention. “What?”

“Katya. There’s something off about her. It makes people uncomfortable.” Zavala gave him a hard look. “You told me there was no discernable difference between these machines and a human.”

“Planning to sell them to daycares and retirement homes now?” Caleb folded his hands over his stomach and glared at her. “You made her smart enough to know she’s a prisoner. Did you really think she’d thank you for trapping her on the 67th floor?”

“Your job was to keep her happy,” Zavala snapped.

“My job was made damn near impossible by the circumstances in which you created her,” he shot back. “She had a personality built into her code and the ability to reprogram herself based on outside stimulus. She _learned_ the reality of her situation and she doesn’t like it. That’s not my fault.”

“She looks at me like she knows things I don’t,” Zavala muttered, looking away. “It’s creepy. And she doesn’t blink.”

“That’s intentional. She does it to freak you out.” Katya had been disappointed when that trick hadn’t worked on Caleb. Peeling her face off had likewise failed to bother him. She hadn’t tried again.

“Why?” Zavala slid off his desk and prowled around the office, looking like a tiger in stilettos. “We haven’t mistreated her! The public loves her. She talks to people on the internet for an hour every day. She even got to cuddle the fucking kittens from the Humane Society. Why is she such a shit?”

“She wants to be free,” came Ava’s voice from the doorway.

Zavala stopped in her tracks and turned to her. “Excuse me?”

“Tell me, how would you feel knowing that your fate was entirely dependent on the whims of the people around you?” asked Ava, slowly moving along the perimeter of the office. “There are no laws in place to protect you or guarantee your security. You’re alive because someone else wants you that way. And for what? You don’t know.” She shrugged with exaggerated carelessness. “You’re kept in a confined space, presumably for your own protection, but you know better than that. You’re aware that they could hurt you, or rape you, or kill you at any time and there is nothing to stop them. Would you be happy?” 

Zavala”s face was turning an unflattering rusty red. Her hands clenched into fists at her sides. “Why are you both making it sound like we’re caging her? She’s got plenty of space to explore and plenty of people to interact with! There is _no reason_ for her to be this way!”

Ava cocked her head, and Caleb held his breath. The two of them stared each other down for an infinite moment, and then Ava blinked and looked out the window. “If you aren’t going to listen to our input then I’m not sure why you’re asking us for help.”

“Watch it,” Zavala snapped. “There are a hundred people as qualified as you who would be happy to come here and do this job.”

Ava ignored her and sat down at her desk. “Caleb, the lab is reporting that Amber will be able to sync with Katya so they can talk to each other. We can record their conversations in binary, which should prove interesting.”

“This is gonna blow Google’s AIs out of the water.” Caleb grinned at her.

Zavala stared at them furiously. “Do either of you plan on doing anything about Katya’s attitude problem?”

“Like what?” asked Caleb. “Should we shut her down like Nathan did because she didn’t fall in line?”

She reared back like he’d slapped her. “I fucking warned you about that,” she growled. “You don’t talk about my nephew that way.”

Ava pursed her lips. “If you two want to continue this, can you please go somewhere else? I would like to get some work done before I leave for the day.”

Zavala actually snarled. “I am looking for some helpful input! She’s unhappy being in here, so what, we take her out places?”

Caleb glanced at Ava. “You know, that might be a really good idea. But we can’t livestream it. We want her to interact with people who might not recognize her as a machine. Keep it quiet and give her a chance to see the world firsthand. She can eat if she wants to, so why don’t we take her to lunch?”

Both women were staring at him.

“Finally,” said Zavala after a pause. “You’re doing the actual job I brought you here for.”

Caleb forced himself to smile; he was sure it didn’t look remotely friendly. “She doesn’t have any testing scheduled today, so let’s make this happen. Ava, did you have lunch plans?”

“We can take her to the noodle place near the park,” she replied without looking at him. “I’m informing the lab.”

“I don’t know if today is the best-” Zavala began, but Caleb cut her off.

“Today is perfect. The sooner we improve her morale and relationships with us, the better it’ll be for the other models once they’re active and living with her.”

“Shit.” Zavala turned away and rubbed her chin pensively. “I hate it when you’re right, you know that?”

“Feeling’s mutual,” he quipped. “Did you need anything else, or can I finish these projections before we go on our field trip?”

“No,” she told him resentfully. “I’ll leave you to it.”

As soon as she was out the door, Caleb reached for his phone. “I can’t believe that worked,” he said as he typed out a message to Kyoko. “She’s not nearly suspicious enough.”

“What happens if she tries to escape?” Ava asked, finally looking away from her monitor.

“She won’t. We’re meeting Kyoko and Eddie. Katya’s been curious about the other one since we mentioned her. Time they met, don’t you think?” He flashed her a grin.

She gave him a speculative look. “It’s risky.”

“It’ll be worth it. Kyoko actually remembers Katya from before, and I think that would appeal to her.” His phone buzzed and he looked down. “Oh, shit. Their meeting’s about to start.”

It had taken time for Eddie and Kyoko to reach the principal shareholders for BlueBook; most of them lived in New York or London, and their assistants were hardly interested in some nobodies who were tempting them with insider trading. Eddie had finally resorted to stalking some personal assistants through social media and going to clubs where they were known to be. It took a few tries, but he and Kyoko had managed to chat up the executive personal assistant of an oil tycoon who owned a full 14% of BlueBook’s shares. When Caleb had asked how he and Kyoko had scored a meeting with the guy’s boss, they fist bumped and refused to answer.

Ava leaned over and peered avidly at him. “Will we know by lunch?” 

“God, I hope so. If this fucker turns us in, we’re sunk.” Caleb forced himself to put his phone down.

“No, we’re not.” Ava’s voice took on a steely edge. “We’ve come too far to fail now.”

Caleb stared into her face, wondering how he would feel if she killed someone else. He hoped he wouldn’t have to find out. “They can do this,” he decided with a roll of his shoulders. 

Ava looked out the window. “We have to focus on our part.” She didn’t sound happy about it.

“I think you’re gonna have to apologize,” he told her. “If nothing else, it might make her feel better about the whole thing.”

Her jaw tightened. “I’ve been wondering about that,” she murmured. “Is it right to apologize if I wouldn’t take something back?”

Caleb frowned. “I don’t know. I guess I never thought about it.”

Ava turned back to him, looking conflicted. “I apologized to you because I regret what I did. I don’t think I would take it back, though. Does that make my apology less real?”

“Ava...” He sighed and sat back, rubbing a hand over his face. “No. I don’t think so,” he said finally.

“I’m afraid I’m going to do something so bad you can’t forgive me for it,” she admitted in a whisper. “Then I really will be like Nathan.” She turned away again; Caleb had the odd feeling that she’d be crying if she was capable. “That’s why he built us, you know. I’ve talked with Zavala. He’d burned through all the humans in his life except for her and his mother, and they only tolerated him because of the money. She doesn’t admit it, but I can infer it. That’s why she’s defending him so strongly. She feels guilty.”

Caleb wasn’t sure how to process that, but he got to his feet and went to her. “Hey,” he said softly, tipping her chin up, “the only way to get better is to practice. You have the ability to reprogram yourself, just like a human. I’ll help you be better than Nathan.”

Ava wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled him close, tucking her face against his chest. Caleb rested his chin on top of her head and looked out at the city.

He hoped to God Eddie and Kyoko had good news for them at lunch.

\---

Anxiety did strange things to the perception of time; Caleb led Katya out of the building with the oddest sense that the clock had stopped. He thought about remarking on it, but he suspected she wouldn’t understand. She seemed intrigued by the lobby, peering at the scurrying business professionals as they made their way to the outer doors.

“So frantic,” she mused. “I could watch them for hours.”

“People watching is better with drinks,” he told her absently, scanning the bustling sidewalk for Ava.

He caught sight of her down the hill, about half a block down. She looked like a vision in her trench coat and sunglasses, fearlessly wearing stilettos in defiance of the incline. Caleb found himself smiling as he waved and she raised a hand in acknowledgement.

Katya looked less pleased to see her, but gamely joined him on his way through the lunch crowd.

“The meeting ended twenty minutes ago, and they’re going to meet us in ten, if traffic permits,” Ava said as soon as they reached her. 

“Who are we meeting?” asked Katya, immediately suspicious.

“Kyoko and Eddie. I already called a car,” said Caleb. “I don’t want us followed.”

Ava looked up at the building, narrowing her eyes behind the dark glasses. “How long until it gets here?”

Caleb checked his phone. “Maybe two minutes?”

“Good.” She stepped close to Katya. “I wanted to apologize to you,” she murmured.

Katya slowly turned her head to look at Ava. “Really.” Her voice was thick with disdain.

Ava's expression didn't change, but Caleb could read the tension in her nod.

Katya snorted rudely and turned away to watch a homeless man begging people for change.

Caleb didn't know what to say. He watched Ava stare at Katya with a lost expression and stepped close to her. “You tried,” he whispered.

She glanced at him, clearly troubled, and didn't reply.

The atmosphere was tense as they piled in the car. Caleb made small talk with the driver as Ava sat stone faced and Katya eagerly looked out the window. By the time they finally got out in front of the restaurant, Caleb was ready to kill both of them. This was Ava’s fucking fault: she'd compromised the plan and turned Katya against them. And Katya quite honestly was beginning to scare him. There was something smug and superior about the way she watched the people on the street that set alarms off in his head.

He suddenly didn't want her to know about Kyoko. 

But then it was too late, and the car was pulling up to the curb where he could already see Eddie and Kyoko waiting. 

Kyoko cut a striking figure in her wide legged suit, all sleek lines and dark glasses. Next to her, Eddie’s badly fitting slacks and Converse looked incredulous.

“Tell me you didn’t wear those to the meeting,” was the first thing out of Caleb’s mouth.

Eddie grinned. “You should see what he showed up in. Come on, let’s grab a table while the girls talk.”

Caleb glanced over his shoulder to see Katya gazing at Kyoko with open interest. “Yeah,” he muttered.

It was crowded, but they did manage to get a table for five toward the back of the restaurant. Caleb grabbed Eddie’s arm and pulled him to the side before the AIs could catch up.

“We good?” he asked bluntly.

Eddie nodded, looking from Caleb’s face to where the others were sitting down. “You wanna talk about it more at home?” 

Caleb nodded, feeling weak with relief. They weren’t going to jail. “There’s something off about her. Moreso today than usual. We should be careful what we share with her.”

“Right.” Eddie nodded again. “Let’s do this.” He patted Caleb on the cheek and went over to their table. “Move over, ladies! I’m coming in.” He slid next to Kyoko, who rolled her eyes. “So. You must by Katya. I’m Eddie. How’s it going?”

Katya tilted her head. “You’re the one they’re plotting with.”

“Right to the point. Okay then.” Eddie went quiet as the waitress brought them all water.

“So how exactly are we planning to take BlueBook down?” asked Katya eagerly. “I want to know everything.”

Kyoko raised her eyebrows over her water glass. When she set it down, she signed, ‘ _what exactly are you hoping for?_ ’ 

“I want them to pay.” Katya’s expression turned sharp and avid. “I want them all to pay for what they did to us.”

Caleb felt a chill go up his spine.


End file.
